Dazed Days
by ummidontknow
Summary: While working at Fatso Burger, Eric makes a new friend who becomes part of the gang. Follow her through adventures, friendship and struggles with growing up in the 70's
1. Chapter 1

This fanfiction will loosely follow the general timeline in the show and will connect with episodes as well as having chapters and events that are original content, the OC will be a main character. Might turn into a slow-growth romance with Hyde and will have friendship scenes with everyone. Hope you enjoy!

 _"_ _Erics Burger Job"_

 _Fatso Burger, 1976_

Standing in a cramped space for 7 hours after school was no teenagers idea of a good time. Yet here Dorothy stood, trying not to wince as hot oil leaped out of the fryer and landed on her arms. Having more money than most people her age was nice, but every day it felt less worth it to spend half her free time in Fatso Burger. The only plus side was that she was always on food instead of cashier, which seemed to be the position the manager had a hard time keeping. Being nice to some of the idiots who come here was truly a hard task. Maybe the new guy would last longer.

He was currently following Ricky the manager around, trying his hardest to stand straight and look confident and interested. He did a good job at faking friendliness it seemed so he would probably do great. Once he settled in it was clear that he was unsure of himself, slipping into complete awkwardness whenever a customer wasn't around. Figuring both of them could use a work buddy Dorothy approached him, "Make sure to enjoy eating fast food now because in a few weeks it wont be as appealing."

He seemed startled and stuttered before responding, "What? Oh yeah, ha, umm, I'll definitely do that." He looked like he wanted to talk but couldn't come up with something so Dorothy kept going as she leaned against the counter, "So Eric, what brings you to the trap of work?"

"The threat of my dads foot up my ass."

"That'll do it, you go to point place right?" Dorothy asked him after laughing at his comment

"Yeah! I thought i'd seen you before, Mrs. Pidwell's English class right?" He said after snapping his fingers and pointing at me.

"Almost, I go in as you go out."

"It's the worst" He exaggerated his words, leaning his head back and rolling his eyes as if completely exhausted by the thought of it.

"Really? I don't think she's that bad."

"Well, doesn't help that Mike Clinser kicks my chair the whole class" He explained

"Lucky you, that douche-bag comes in here all the time"

"So.. How am I lucky?" Eric pursed his lips and raised one eyebrow in an exaggerated fashion

"So we can spit in his food" Dorothy wiggled her eyebrows at him as he stood in silent amazement.

"Well thats just fantastic!"

The next few weeks were a little more bearable for Dorothy at Fatso Burger now that Eric and her had become friends, Brian the 40-year old screw up and Samantha the know-it-all weren't exactly fun co-workers. Eric and Dorothy livened up each others day with spitting in food, using the mop as a form of air guitar at the end of each night, and talking about people from school. The manager tolerated the end of night antics, but daytime fun ended after pranking Eric's friends. Dorothy hadn't talked to them yet since she was usually away from the counter, but after hearing all of Erics stories, she knew she had to prank Jackie when she came in with the group.

Dorothy and Eric watched as Jackie sat with her boyfriend, too busy telling Michael a story to notice that with each bite of her salad she got closer to the large, realistic looking rubber spider sitting in her food. When she finally did it wasn't disappointing, she screeched at an ear-piercing note and toppled her chair over, in the rush to get away she fell back over the chair and landed on her backside. She jumped up and hid behind her boyfriend, screaming at him to kill it before realizing that she was eating from the plate and rushed to the bathroom to clean out her mouth. The two culprits doubled over laughing, joined by Eric's favorite red-head.

A strong accent spoke from the group, walking over to the salad, "In my country spider is a delicacy", he frowned as he picked it up "wait a minute... this is not real."

Donna turned to Eric, "Did you do that!?"

Hyde turned to his friend and nodded in approval, "Nice man."

Eric stood a bit taller, a smug smile on his face "why yes, yes I did."

"BURN!" Jackies boyfriend yelled, completely unconcerned with his panicked girlfriend.

Dorothy threw a French fry at Eric from her spot in the kitchen for taking all the credit and forgetting about her in the presence of his friends. They turned to her, smiling as she flipped Eric the bird.

Eric deflated a little, realizing he had to share the glory "Well, sorta. It's Dorothy's spider.. and it was her idea,"

Eric held up a finger as he went back to congratulating himself, " but I set the trap by making Jackie think she was safe to eat here."

Hyde stopped leaning on the counter and shook his head,"Taking credit for other peoples efforts? You really are part of the working class now, huh forman?"

Ricky had made his was out to the main floor by now, although he heard the scream minutes ago he wanted to deal with customers just as little as the rest of the workers so he took his time leaving his office in hopes any issue would resolve itself. Jackie had stormed out of the bathroom and up to the manager, wasting no time or breath on telling him how dirty his store was and how he would be lucky if she didn't call her daddy. When she was told it was a fake spider her rage switched off of the store and onto the three teenagers standing at the counter. Donna and Hyde stepped to the side, slowly making their way to the door and out of Jackie's path to Eric. For being so small the girl could demand a lot of attention and fear.

After the scene Jackie made it was hard to have as much fun, the manager cracked down and forced the pair back into being model employees through intense monitoring and constant over-time by giving them more to clean each night and opening the doors to last minute customers. Fatso Burger was the ruler of their lives, the main thing Eric and Dorothy talked about now was how they didn't have time for anything else. Both Eric and Dorothy's friends would come in from time to time, clearly bored without them, but neither teenager was willing to quit quite yet. Even after being invited to a party by the pretty redhead, Eric was still choosing work.

"You should use the money you're making here to take Donna out on a date." Dorothy broke the silence as they wiped down the counters, cleaning up the mess that their incompetent coworker made when he spilled a tub of ketchup. Of course Ricky told him to go home anyways and leave it for the young kids, still punishing them nearly two weeks after their prank.

Eric nearly slipped on the floor he was mopping in surprise, "What? I don't.. Donna and I… we uh, we're just friends."

Dorothy rolled her eyes, "yeah yeah, she clearly wants you around a lot and she stops in almost every day just to see you. Friends or not, she's into you."

"Donna? I, she, no, um"

Dory cut his stuttering off "Shut up Eric"

"Okay"

After a few minutes of silence he found his words, "I don't have time with this job, but maybe I will, it's complicated."

"I'll finish cleaning up if you want to go early and see if you can catch the end of the party, apologize to her for being a dick. You owe me though, next week you can do the same for me so I can finally see my friends."

"Deal" Eric dropped the mop in the middle of the floor and was out the door in no time

 _Point Place high school, two weeks later_

"Where the hell is foreman?" Hyde said while leaning against the vista cruiser, itching to get off school property while he had a sock stuffed with his stash.

"He is talking to a girl" Fez said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, earning a look of annoyed disbelief that was visible even with sunglasses on.

"How do you know that?" Donna asked from her spot next to Steven.

Fez pointed across the parking lot where Forman stood, excitedly talking to a girl leaning against her own car "See, he is there."

The gang all turned to face Eric's direction, watching him talk to the dark-haired girl. Eric had been around less all week and each time he was found chatting with the same girl from Fatso burger. He quit his job yet was still there regularly to give her company. His friends never were fond of changes without approving of them first, it was like a family that way. A bratty, territorial family.

Fez sighed, "why hasn't he introduced us yet?"

"Maybe they're doing it"

Jackie looked at Michael, clearly unamused and confused by his reasoning, "Oh please, like anyone would sleep with Eric."

"Hey!," the friends turned to the tall red-head, questioning with their eyes why she would react with such anger towards Jackie's comment, realizing her position she continued, "I mean… some people might..."

Jackie was uninterested in her reply, "Eww"

"Man, Erics like a magnet these days, who knew " Kelso's smile grew across his face as he shook his head in amazement, "and that girls hot too, I've seen her in my gym class, she doesn't have Donna or Brooke Rockwell boobs, but her butt is top notch. This one time.." a swift slap to his arm interrupted his train of thought, "Damn Jackie, you know you're the best looking girl in school" Michael had learned how to come back from these types of situations, sometimes it landed well with the fiery girl and sometimes it didn't.

"Ah yes, gym class, the best time to see the ladies" Everyone leaned away from Fez slightly as they noticed how much he appreciated the thought of the schools gym uniform.


	2. Chapter 2

"The Keg"

Abandoned Pool , 1976

"Welcome to the pool, I am your host Fez, two dollars please" Holding out his hands to the first people to show up at the Keg party, Fez excitedly waited for money to be handed to him. Two dollars a person felt like a million bucks when you didn't have to work for it.

"What is going on?" Jackie asked, staring expectantly at Eric as Donna and Hyde made their way to the edge of the pool to climb out.

"I didn't want to tell you before Jackie, but we've taken it upon ourselves to help your mom show off the house, at two bucks a head." Jackie growled at Eric and stormed off, wishing Michael would hurry back.

Hyde and Donna sat watching the pool fill up with people, legs dangling over the edge.

"He's lying to Jackie, man. I lie to Jackie. It seems to me that scrawny little neighbor boy is willing to engage in criminal acts for that saucy redhead next door." Hyde smirked t his companion, as much as he poked fun at them for liking each other he wished it wasn't true. Donna had been his friend for just as long as Eric had been, when he thought of good times with girl it was always Donna that came to mind. The blush on her cheeks made it clear that Donna thought of Eric more than she thought of Hyde though, "Shut up, how do you know he isn't doing it to impress his friends? You know, peer pressure."

"Because his friends aren't Saucy."

"Kelso's saucy."

Hyde scrunched up his face, "Please. I'm Saucier than Kelso."

Donna laughed, but the smile soon fell as she noticed who Eric was talking to now once Hyde pointed it out "Or maybe he's trying to impress his new lady friend, they seem pretty cozy." Donna tried not to let it ruin her good time but looking down into the pool where Eric stood laughing with his ex-coworker stirred an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. It was bothering her more than she expected to see Eric taking an interest in someone else, but she wasn't ready to admit her feelings for him so she just brushed Hyde off, "They're just talking"

"Guys don't smile like that unless they want to get with someone"

"You've been smiling like that." Donna countered

"Exactly." Hyde grinned at her, using comedy to cheer her up even though what he was saying wasn't a lie.

Laughing Donna stood up and headed to the ladder, "Come on."

Hyde's eyes lingered on her backside for a moment as she walked away before following her down to where Eric stood by the keg and main lawn chairs.

"Hey! Look at this, we've already made 10 bucks and the beer isn't even open yet." Eric exclaimed as his best friend and long-time crush walked over to him.

" Nice!" Donna nodded, unable to stop herself from smiling widely at Eric, she found him too cute to not share in his enthusiasm.

"Much better deal than flipping burgers." The new girl spoke, gaining Erics gaze once again.

He put a hand on her shoulder, "Well if you work hard, stay in school, you too might one day throw a kegger." She smiled and rolled her eyes, flicking his hand away from her.

Donna watched silently for a minute while the two pushed each other around playfully and joked about work. Suddenly the party sucked.

She was never one to feel too down on herself or worry about what she looked like but she suddenly felt out of place in her body when watching the two interact. Unlike Donna, this girl was a normal height for a high school girl and had nothing intimidating about her. Although her dress was loose except for a small belt around her waist Donna could see that her figure was slim but didn't lack the qualities that boys like Eric fawned over. Her nearly black hair was pulled back, a few wavy strands were falling out and resting on her collar bone. Light colored freckles were sprinkled along her shoulders and face, and instead of distracting from her other features they added cuteness. Her lips adorned with red lipstick drew attention to her straight teeth each time she smiled and a sparkle shot through her big, gray green eyes that seemed full of light even in the darkness of the abandoned pool. Donna felt like a graceless ogre standing next to a delicate fairy, it didn't help that she had been spending time around Jackie who used any opportunity to insult her hair, size and style. Being around someone who treats you that way makes it easy to feel less confident.

Hyde joined in their conversation, bringing Donna out of her funk and back to the people around her, "You're the spider girl, right?"

She turned to him, giving him the same smile she gave Eric, "I am, you're Steven Hyde right?"

"One and only."

"I'm Dorothy, if you wanted to call me by something shorter"

Hyde shrugged, "We'll see." Sitting down in one of the chairs he separated himself from the conversation.

Her smile didn't fall, unaffected by Hyde's indifference as if she was his old time friend and knew how he was. As much as Eric talked about his friends Dorothy did feel like she knew them to a degree.

"And of course you're Donna, Eric adores you."

"What the hell Dory!?" Eric looked between the two girls with panic and then to Hyde for help.

Donna laughed at Eric's embarrassment, even if it wasn't out of Eric's mouth it was nice to hear he liked her, and even better to watch him feel uncomfortable. Maybe Dorothy wasn't flirting and was just super friendly, Donna reconsidered as she watched green eyes sparkle in her direction.

"Well i'm going to hide in the corner over there by the keg now" Eric chuckled humorously trying to get away from the situation he was in and plopped down on top of the keg and re-counted his money while they all waited for Kelso to return. Donna and Dorothy shook their heads at each other, a mutual silent laugh at Eric's expense before squatting around the keg, avoiding plopping down onto the dirty ground. Lucky for Eric the attention didn't stay on him as Kelso climbed down the pool railing

"Finally!" Hyde said

The joy was soon taken away when Kelso handed the tap over.

"It's broken." Donna stated

"I got duct tape"

The group looked at their friend as if it was surprising how simple-minded he could be at times, Hyde pulled Eric to the side, stepping up to give Eric the pep talk he needed to convince him to take his dads tap. Before Eric gave a definite answer two monsters in football jackets walked over to complain about the broken tap. This pushed Eric over the edge to be criticized by the idiots who caused the problem in the first place by breaking the tap in half. After tearing their money and handing it back, Eric felt a surge of adrenaline pump through him, switching his plan of giving up with the broken tap and switching to the new plan of borrowing his dads. Jumping up the railing he relished in the cheering of his peers, feeling like an action hero.

Dorothy gave up on squatting and sat on the dirty pool floor next to Donna, no longer caring if her dress got a little dirty. Not recognizing anyone else at the party yet she decided to stay close to Erics friends and wait for him to come back, the silence of the pool made her feel even more uncomfortable though as she waited for his friends to make conversation that she could join in on instead of just talking about people she didn't know. After a silence crept in Hyde spoke, "Man this blows, no weed, no beer"

"This party needs music." Dorothy suggested, gaining nods of agreement from the group.

"Matt Dorrian's here" Donna pointed out

Kelso nodded, "Yeah you can hear his music from like a mile away when he's leaving school. Jackie, go ask him."

Jackie looked offended that he gave her an order "What? Why don't you do it?"

"He's a rich football player, they're not nice to anyone but other rich football players and cheerleaders" Kelso explained, looking at Jackie as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The hostility left Jackie's face as she thought about it, understanding rich people only liking rich people, she was making exceptions in her relationship because of her love for Michael.

"Hope he doesn't put on something shitty" Dorothy said as they watched Jackie talk to the jock.

"If Abba comes on, i'm breaking his headlight." Hyde stated

"Take a chance on me" Donna started to sing, smiling as Hydes face became annoyed, "if you need me, let me know, gonna be around" Hyde playfully pushed her shoulder to get her away from him which only encouraged her more. Before she could finish the next line Hyde had jumped up and put his hand on her mouth. Laughing at their wrestling, Kelso, Jackie and Dorothy continued the song until all four of them were skipping around Hyde, loudly singing out of key. Hyde sat, a sour look on his face waiting for them to be done.

"We got you good Hyde" Kelso grinned, getting great pleasure out of Stevens annoyance until he got a swift punch to the arm.

Luckily for Steven the sound of The Who echoed off the pool walls from the football players car stereo instead of pop music, "Not bad."

"Not bad indeed" Dorothy said tapping her fingers on the ground imitating drums.

"You strike me as more of a disco chick"

The small girl shrugged at the frizzy haired boy, "I like dancing to disco, but nothing beats the pounding of rock and roll, amps me up."

"Top ten?"

"The doors for sure, Iron maiden, Black Sabbath, CCR, Grateful dead, Jethro Tull, Ramones, Iron Butterfly, Frank Zappa and… I don't know, they're not rock N roll but I like the Temptations too."

"You're forgetting the greats man; Zeppelin, the stones, Priest!"

"Yeah, they're pretty decent, too bad they never come around here though."

"It's bogus" he agreed

"Got to see Todd Rundgren though, that was sick!" Donna chimed in, thinking to a few weeks back when they all went and she kissed Eric for the first time on the vista cruiser.

"Well good for you, I was in the car all night" Kelso snapped, still bitter at having to give up his ticket.

"Michael! We spent a beautiful night together, you had the best time of your life!" Jackie corrected him before walking off, angry at him but expecting him to follow.

"Damnit, I swear this is gonna be the last night i'm with her." Kelso promised with no intention of actually breaking up with his controlling girlfriend before standing up and following her out of the pool.

Dorothy wasn't sure if their fights were common or something that was supposed to be awkward so she continued the conversation from before instead of dwelling on it, "That's awesome about the concert though, I got to see Areosmith for my 15th birthday last year and the rolling stones when I was too young to care."

"Too young to care?" Donna asked, like it was impossible not to care at any age.

"I was five or six"

"Thats awesome! My parents are groovers instead" Donna exclaimed while shaking her head at the thought of her parents dancing to pop music.

"Yeah my dad is big on music, pretty sure if he could have he would have planned for me to pop out at a concert."

Suddenly the music stopped, the young teens looked around confused before they saw Jackie rushing to the railing, "Everybody in the deep end, my mother is showing the house!"

Donna said what everyone was thinking, "Now?"

"People work Donna" Jackie snapped as people moved to squish together as close to the deep end wall as they could. It didn't do any good though as three adults stared down into the group of kids. It didn't take long for everyone to leave when they heard that the police would be coming to collect the keg and the hosts of the party. Dorothy said goodbye to Erics friends, wishing them luck with the authorities since they only wanted the owners of the keg to stay.


	3. Chapter 3

**If anyone's curious as to the girl I picture for Dorothy feel free to ask, but I figure most people end up picture whatever they want anyways so I didn't bother adding a link**

 _Thursday, Two weeks later, Point Place High school_

Dorothy sat in last period study hall, calculating in her notebook. She was figuring out how many months she would have enough money to fuel her car, buy drugs and have cash for junk food if she quit her job and just used her savings. After working at Fatso Burger part time for the past 7 months she had saved most of her money, after 7 months of working minimum wage she had a little over 1,500 left. Not terrible for a 16 year old, she figured she could make that stretch for awhile, long enough to enjoy the upcoming summer and winter at the very least. She hated going to work when it was sticky hot or dangerously icy outside, but even with a strong desire to quit Dorothy couldn't help but to keep debating it with herself, not worrying about buying things was really nice. Her inner debate was interrupted by a familiar face plopping down across from her.

She looked at him confused, "You're in my study hall?"

Steven smirked, "Usually sleeping in Forman's car."

"Sounds cozy, is he almost done being grounded?"

"Nah, I doubt it, Red took away his car this week to make the punishment worse."

Dorothy nodded, assuming that Red was Eric's dad since she had never been told his name, "Bummer, hows your week been without your bestie?"

Hyde scowled at her, unamused by the girly term she used to describe his friendship with Eric but answered non the less, "It blows, I feel like my IQ has dropped from all the time with Kelso."

"If they don't set him free soon you'll have to turn to reckless and illegal behavior to fill the void."

"I like the way you think." Hyde nodded at her approvingly, making eye contact through the lenses of his glasses. It was amazing that he didn't get in trouble for leaving them on inside the school.

"If you're taking suggestions you could let some frogs lose on Thusday, get me out of having to dissect one, better yet just blow up the school so we never have to come here again." Dorothy joked, even though she really didn't want to do dissections. Hyde laughed and started singing Alice cooper, referencing the school being blown to pieces, "Schools out for summer, schools out forever!"

After being shushed by the teacher, Steven and Dorothy found quiet ways to fill the rest of study hall. Breaking out into a war, he tore bits or paper from his homework and flicked them at her while dodging the bits of eraser she was flinging back. Luckily the bell rang just as a ball of paper landed in the teachers open drink. Hyde and Dory were out the door in the blink of an eye.

The pair walked out of the school, ignoring the sound of their teachers voice yelling after them, ignore long enough and sometimes you get lucky.

"I don't have work tonight if you need a ride home." Dory offered, knowing how irritating the bus ride home could be.

"Nah, I'm in no hurry, nothing to do at my house, or this town for that matter" Hyde complained, kicking a rock as he followed Dory to her car. He mainly didn't want to go home to another fight with his mom. Why rush just to get home to an empty house, or worse a house with a mother who was angry at him for existing.

"Well, you can always lose a few more braincells" Hyde raised an eyebrow confused before he noticed that she was referring to Kelso who was waving frantically at them while heading in their direction.

"Hey Hyde," Kelso wiggled his eyebrows in a way that he thought must be attractive and spoke slower, "and hello Dorothy."

She scrunched up her nose, disgusted that he was hitting on her while dating Jackie, "Where's Jackie and Fez?"

Hyde added, "and Donna?"

"Oh Jackie said that Donna needed girl time, so she's taking her to the mall." Kelso said quickly, trying to skip over talk about the other girls while trying to woo Dory.

"and fez?" she asked, hoping that asking about him and the others that Michael would feel like she wasn't interested in him more than anyone else.

"Sneaking around the mall trying to get a glimpse of them changing." Michael said in a surprisingly calm tone for talking about another guy creeping on his girlfriend.

Dorothy just nodded, an appalled expression still on her face at how strange all their relationships were.

"So, You wanna go to the hub with me?" Kelso asked, still thinking he had a chance with her. Dorothy looked at Hyde, asking him if he would come too without having to say anything. He gave a small nod.

"Alright, sure, lets go" Dorothy nodded to her green and black 1971 Plymouth cuda and got in the driver seat, letting Kelso and Hyde decide who gets to sit in the front.

The whole ride there Kelso glared at Hyde for taking the front seat even though he lost rock, paper, scissors, shoot. That game was law. Besides, Kelso thought, couldn't Hyde see that she wanted to get with him? Once they got out of the car Michael was taking every chance to impress Dorothy, from holding the door open for her to ordering them each a set of fries. His logic was that if a guy put out money for food girls would give out in return. Even then he felt like he wasn't getting the attention he deserved so he switched to his other talents to try to win Dory over, "Hey Dory, you wanna see how fast I can eat all these fries?"

Finally he got her to laugh, "Couldn't eat them as fast as me, I'm a savage."

"YOU'RE ON!"

"Alright, heres the rules, no stopping for water, no ketchup, no vomiting" Hyde leaned in, lifting up a napkin to signal the start of the race. He looked back and forth between the two, the intensity could be seen almost in slow motion, hands itching to grab fries, eyes unblinkingly watching for the napkin to hit the table.

"GO!" Hyde dropped the flag and leaned back in his chair, laughing as he watched the two eat an unnatural amount of fries. As cute as he thought she was, no one looked charming with a mouth full of fries. She sat nearly choking as she tried to swallow the mouthful without chewing properly. Kelso on the other hand was able to breath them in, like watching a dog eat. As Dorothy was picking up her final handful Kelso shot up, arms in the air as he swallowed the last of his batch.

"Suck it!" Kelso shouted in her face, "I'm so great at everything man." He smiled and looked into the distance, imagining a collection of ladies sitting around him, feeding him French fries and assuring him that he is nearly a god.

Thursday was not going well for Dorothy. She had stayed far past clock-out time at Fatso burger the night before, right as she thought she was okay to leave she remembered to check the bathrooms only to find an overflowing toilet. The cause was a children's toy that had been flushed down the pipes and left to get worse. She was in no mood to be standing outside for gym with the sun shining painfully into her eyes when all she wanted was to go back to sleep. Today was day two of tennis, which meant that everyone spent most of the class standing around waiting for their turn to play since there was only room for four players at a time. What a waste of time.

When class ended she eagerly made her way to the locker rooms, while some girls were taking quick five minute showers she instead laid down on the benches. A five minute nap was better than no nap, but this was quickly interrupted by a dirty towel being thrown onto her face. Shooting up Dorothy glared at the cheerleaders before her.

"Opps, sorry, I didn't see you there." The blonde cheerleader pouted her lip in false sincerity before smiling and giggling with her friends, whispering among themselves while looking in her direction.

They were clearly aiming to make Dory feel insecure, it might have worked if they weren't as obvious about what they were doing. It was odd though, usually Dory didn't have any issues with the girls in her class, they just ignored each other. She wasn't popular or school-spirited enough to be liked by them but she wasn't ugly or poor enough to be hated by them either. It wasn't until they were walking out the door that they talked to her directly to let her know where the sudden hostility was coming from.

"I can't believe you would think you have a chance with Micheal, way to be a huge slut moving in on him and that skinny foreplay kid at the same time." One of the girls scowled at her and looked her up and down. Girls like her were skilled in the art of making people feel uncomfortable with a single look.

Dorothy might have argued or fought back if she didn't find it so funny that they thought she wanted Kelso in any way. At first glance he was attractive, but the second he opens his mouth its clear his train of thought is limited to a few things. Besides, even if he could be a fun guy, fun enough to go to the hub with the past few days when she wasn't working, she wasn't interested in anyone who was willing to cheat on their girlfriend. Guess Jackie and her friends didn't see it that way.

Making her day even worse she knew that soon she would have to go to biology, she loved every part of learning about science and nature and animals, but that didn't change the fact that she didn't want to cut up a frog. The thought made her depressed. She almost wished she had fought back against the cheerleaders so that she could have been sent to the principals office instead of science class today. Even as she was waiting for the teacher to hand out frogs she was debating how much she needed the grade or not, if it'd be worth it to refuse and fight with her parents about getting a C.

"You'll need to work in pairs for the dissection, you will take turns finding each organ on the list using the probing tools. Whoever has a lighter hand will make the first incision, you'll need to press firm enough to break the skin but not so hard that you destroy the specimens insides."

As the students were pairing off and setting up their desks to have more room to operate the teacher stared to cut open the tape holding the icebox closed. A loud shriek filled the room, everyone was surprised to see that it came from the masculine teacher. More screams followed as the students realized the cooler had been knocked off the table, letting lose a dozen living frogs. A group of girls ran for the windowsill, trying to climb as high as they could to avoid the amphibians, acting like they were trapped in a room with a serial killer.

"Class canceled for today! Extra credit to anyone who gets them the hell back into the box!" The science teacher announced as he stood on his desk, clearly uninterested in coming down until all the frogs were put away. Dorothy bolted out the door, laughing at her teacher. No problem handling and cutting up a dead frog but terrified of living ones, what a jokes he would be for the rest of the school year.

Dorothy no longer felt tired or annoyed at Jackie, instead she was pumping with energy. Thinking back to her conversation with Hyde a few days before she couldn't help but to be amazed that he would or even could pull off something like this. When the end of the day came and she spotted the frizzy haired boy she couldn't help but to greet him with a hug, surprising both him and the usual group of friends that surrounded him. Hyde patted her awkwardly on the back, unsure of how to respond to a hug in general, let alone one from a girl he had known for so short of a time.

"How did you do it?" she asked stepping away from the embrace.

Hyde crossed his arms over his chest and stood a bit taller, "I have my connections."

Dorothy scoffed at his secretive attitude but continued happily, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Probably dying of boredom." Fez and Michael stood by, looking offended that Hyde wasn't amused by them. Hyde rolled his eyes at the boys and gave a quick pointed look, they shrugged in return unable to deny that it was more dull without Forman's basement to hangout in.

"I have the perfect way to pay you back for today."

Fez cut in, "Ohh, you are going to do it with him. Very smooth American way of saying so."

Dorothy's eyes widened as she stared at the warm-skin toned boy, she wanted to be offended but the innocent way he said it, as if it was a casual concept, made her want to laugh.

Hyde, always appreciating a joke with shock value spoke up in response, "I'll accept that currency."

Dorothy lightly backhanded his chest but smiled immediately after, appreciating the relaxed attitude he had. "You're all perverts."

"When a girl says, 'I'll pay you back' it means doing it!" Kelso defended, not seeming to realize that Hyde meant it as a joke with no expectations of sex.

"I meant smoking him up, moron." Dorothy normally didn't insult people without knowing them for a long time, but Kelso was so dense it was hard not to use it in place of his name.

Hyde grinned widely and nodded his head in approval, "Nice."

A few minutes later Dorothy walked away to her car, hurrying to get to work on time. The boys stood, staring at her rear-end as she moved, appreciating the tightness of her bell bottom jeans.

"So, you do not get to do it?" Fez questioned, trying to understand if Michaels words were true or not. He was still new to how things worked in this country.

"Man, Hyde couldn't get her anyways, he's too dirty." Kelso laughed, enjoying Hyde's expression of annoyance at the insult.

Kelso continued, "besides, girls only insult guys who they really want, thats why Jackie is always calling me dumb."

"She calls you that because you are, moron." Hyde growled. Hyde switched the conversation to cars as he saw Donna approaching. Even though he saw the way she interacted with Eric he couldn't help but to want to hide his interactions with other girls. He still hoped that Donna would show the same interest in him that he had for her.


	4. Chapter 4

_Point Place woods, 1976_

"Think fish would kill us if they could?" Hyde asked from his spot on a fallen tree as he passed the bowl to Dorothy who was sitting on the ground by his leg. Hyde didn't look away from the river, trying to catch glimpses of the fish beneath.

"Hell yeah, people are dicks to fish."

"Holy crap!" Hyde's sudden exclamation made Dory choke on her inhale, resulting in a coughing fit as Hyde explained his realization, "the fishermen are the government and we're the fish!"

Dorothy giggled, eyes fixed on the water, "I think I'd be a good fish, I love the water."

Hyde continued with his thought, not fazed by Dorothy's lack of excitement in response to his declaration, "We're all taking the bait fighting until our deaths! It exactly like the government, waving a good life in front of people and then trapping them!"

"Wouldn't fishermen be jobs and employers and the government would be the people eating the fish who demand that they be caught?" Dorothy asked, thinking that it was more complicated than just the fishermen and fish. Hyde nodded his head, deeply contemplating the sick cycle of the world.

"I'm never eating seafood again." Dorothy decided, Hyde nodding in agreement.

They sat in comfortable silence, both letting the buzz take over their bodies.

"I'm starving" Hyde said, the talk of fish leading him down a thought trail of food.

Dorothy laughed loudly at the timing of his declaration, her head falling back onto the log. She was still smiling widely as Hyde stood up and offered her a hand. They spoke back and forth, creating a ridiculous horror story to make the walk pass quicker, about two teens walking in the woods when a mutated fish man attacked. Hyde laughed with her as they stumbled through the woods, trying to keep their footing as the sun fell behind the trees, making it difficult to walk gracefully. Even with sunglasses removed, Steven still struggled to walk a balanced path.

When they got back to town they headed into the hub, hoping to grab a meal before it closed for the night only to realize neither of them had cash. Dorothy had left her wallet in her car, which they left at school early that day when they decided to start the weekend by drinking and smoking in the woods.

Hyde shook his head in disappointment, "man, we should have killed a fish when we had the chance" he joked.

"There's food at my house." Dorothy suggested, not thinking her parents would still be awake.

"I'll walk you." Hyde said, agreeing to her offer, glad to have the chance to get something to eat for free. Other than school lunch he didn't get a whole lot of food during the day, Edna wasn't one for grocery shopping or making meals.

Dorothy's house had a similar layout to Forman's, at least as far as Hyde could tell. They had entered through a basement door, and just like Forman's it had a main section, an old shower and a small back room. The larger section had a washer and dryer, but instead of a couch it had a sewing table, a shelf of fabrics, and multiple musical instruments. Instead of a television there was a home-made pen set up for large, fluffy dog that was currently sleeping. The stairs led into the kitchen just the same, but they didn't venture past that part of the house, so he wasn't sure if it got different from there. Only change in the kitchen was that while the Forman's had a glass sliding door that led to the driveway, Dorothy had a standard door that led to a fenced in yard.

Hyde and Dorothy silently moved around the kitchen, each time one of them dropped an item or closed a cupboard they would pause, waiting to hear any sign of her parents, before grinning at each other and continuing on. Slipping back into the basement they sat on the bottom of the steps, digging into the cookies and chips they had grabbed.

Neither of them felt the need to immediately break the silence, the weight of hanging out for a good part of the day smoking was falling on both of them now. They had gone through the giggles and were slowly reaching the stage where their bodies were ready to stop and sink into a resting position. They stared into the eyes of her dog, which was now sitting up watching them curiously, wondering if the food they were eating was for her.

Hyde moved a chip from side to side watching the dogs eyes follow before tossing the chip towards the pen. In one breath it was swallowed up, her tail wagging wildly at the interaction. Dory walked over to the French Spaniel, letting her out of the spacious pen, "she might start barking if we don't let her sit with us." She explained as she noticed Steven's eyes on her.

She sat back down next to Steven, her dog sitting calmly in front of them, happily waiting for another snack as her tongue hung out of her brown and white spotted mouth.

"Her names Toto" The French Spaniel cocked her head, brown eyes moving to her owner as she recognizing her name.

"Toto?" Steven asked, raising an eyebrow at Dorothy. Without saying another word she knew why he was close to laughing at her.

"I loved the wizard of oz when I was a kid" she had explained this to almost everyone who met her dog, always needing to justify the name choice even though it was an obvious connection.

"I see that" Hyde said, still smirking at her in hopes of continuing her annoyed expression.

She rolled her eyes, knowing what he was doing, "Well aren't you clever for a scarecrow." She grabbed a handful of chips and started to carefully pull them out of her grasp one by one, trying not to drop any.

"I think your mistaking me for Kelso"

Dory stifled a laugh, making sure she didn't spit out any chips. Even when Michael wasn't anywhere near by the burn was just as nice.

"Erics the lion then" Dory continued with the playful comparison as they both imagined what it would be like to see their friends in the classic roles.

Head spinning from landing tornado-first into Wisconsin, Dorothy was greeted by Donna, the good witch, and a collection of singing Fez's. She was sent on a mission to meet the wizard who ruled over all of oz, meeting friends along the way. Kelso the scarecrow, who regularly decided smoking was a good idea, only to need to be put out every time once he caught fire. Eric the cowardly lion, who used sarcasm to hide his whimpers, and Hyde the tin man who, instead of motor oil, needed beer to continue on. After defeating Jackie, the wicked witch, and her army of flying cheer-leading monkeys they reached the gates of Oz. Only to be met with the great and powerful Red, who offered a foot in the ass as a solution to all the characters problems.

Steven and Dory nodded in agreement at the mutual daydream, Dory accepting the ending of the story even though she didn't have a face to put with Red's name yet.

"I'm not sure he's going to live up to his reputation when I meet him." Dorothy referred to Red Forman, unable to imagine someone so tough that kids outside of his own family were frightened of his wrath.

"If you like yelling and threats, you wont be disappointed."

"My favorite things." She smiled at him, noticing for the first time how blue his eyes were.

"So your parents, are they cool?" the topic of strict parents left him wondering why she felt comfortable sneaking a boy into her house late at night. Most girls he met who were as free as she seemed to be usually didn't come from upper-middle class homes. After spending the day smoking and exchanging dirty jokes and political ramblings it was clear that she wasn't one for following all the rules.

Dorothy paused, not knowing how to answer. She loved both her parents and learned a lot from them, but there was a gap when it came to certain important opinions. Her and her dad would ramble on about music and history with each other, he would spend hours teaching her to learn her favorite songs on whatever instrument her heart desired. They would go to concerts and he would let her take sips of his beers when no one else was around.

Her mom taught her everything about gardening, one of Dorothy's favorite pass times, showing her how to use different plants for everything from food to medicine. When her sister lived at home, their mom would always make sure Dorothy got complements and one-on-one time since her sister was known for getting excessive amounts of attention in comparison.

She got along with them very well compared to some of the relationships she had seen her friends have with their families, but she had to bite her tongue when it came down to expressing how she felt about important things and it would sometimes lead to fights where Dory didn't feel comfortable going home.

Her mom was sensitive about religion and drugs, breaking out into half angry, half depressed tears each time Dorothy showed any signs of not believing in god, which created tension since Dorothy hated religion to the point where she would get equally angry and depressed as her mother, often resulting in explosions between them that would end with her mother disciplining her.

Dory's mom didn't see grounding as an effective form of punishment, instead she would sit and read the bible to Dory, and each time she rolled her eyes or scoffed, her mom would smack her wrists with a ruler like she had been treated when she was a young girl in catholic school. Dory would struggle to sit through the readings without challenging every passage, every story, pointing out the ridiculousness of it and the horrors religion had created in the world, and each time she would get her mouth washed out with soap so long that even hours later Dory could taste the bitterness.

Her dad was amazingly lenient in comparison. Although they were clearly happy and loving when they thought no one was looking, her mom and dad were very different people when it came to parenting. He had been strict with Dory's older sister, worried about what she would wear and where she was going, but that paved the way for him to be more relaxed with Dory. He wasn't upset if she came home late, or if she wore something a little too bold for her age. Even though it had never been tested, Dory thought that he might not even be terribly upset if he learned that she smoked pot. The main source of tension between them came from politics.

Dory saw Nixon and the government as the devil, and strongly disagreed with war in general and the war on drugs and believed it to be a way for the government to lock up anyone who was deemed a threat, such as young kids protesting the war or black families who were starting to make steps forward. Her dad however was a racist war hero who thought that separate but equal was key because people of color "would only take apart what was built." He wouldn't often mention his time in war, but when he did he would curse and generalize an entire population of people because he had fought against them. Dory cloud understand how fighting for your life could create a negative feeling towards a group, but it was difficult at times for her not to argue that Americans are no saints.

He would do the opposite of his wife, while she would fight with and punish Dory, he would end the argument with a belittling comment and then ignore her until he was no longer upset, which could be hours or days.

Part of the reason she wasn't eager to quit her job was because it provided a way to keep enough distance from her family that she didn't fight with them. It kept the household at peace and allowed them to live in an illusion of agreement. Keeping the conversation topics light and using activities to fill time rather than conversation was a safe way to avoid tensions. She supposed her dad was considered cool, a lenient rockNroller, and her mom was cool enough to be welcoming to her friends and care about her feelings outside of religion.

Hyde waved a hand in front of Dory's face, signaling that she was taking a strange amount of time to answer his question. She tried to laugh it off, "I must be becoming a light weight, not smoking as much as I used to."

Hyde put his hand on her shoulder and waved his other hand at her in a nagging manner, a cookie between his fingers, "Now dear," He spoke in a higher tone, imitating a mother figure, "Drugs will rot your brain, see this cookie? Its beautiful." He shoved it into his mouth with one bite and stuck his tongue out, showing a mashed up mess. Dory was waiting for him to compare the cookie to her brain and say that drugs mash it up, but he didn't continue his joke. He got caught up in the taste of the cookie and started eating the whole sleeve in a rush instead.

"Yeah, they're alright. My parents I mean, not the drugs. I get along with them well as long as I don't mention certain topics."

Hyde scoffed, "Typical, wanna be best buds until you disagree." He shook the bottom of the cookie box, hoping to get every last crumb.

"If you're that hungry I could go make a hamburger helper or frozen waffles or something real quick?" She asked, noticing that after half a bag of chips and a box of cookies he was still itching for more food.

Hyde looked at her, "Man, really? That'd be sick."

"No biggie, you should stay here though, so if my parents wake up they don't see you."

He saluted her as she stood up, "Good plan."


	5. 5

The weekend rolled by uneventfully for Dorothy, Saturday was spent taking care of homework, picking the ripened fruit from the house garden with her mother and continuing her drum lessons with her dad. Even growing up with music as a key part of life, the drums were an instrument Dory still struggled to play. Guitar, flute, piano and even violin were decent skill sets at this point, allowing her to explore any genre or album she wanted to learn. With drums, she was lucky to be able to play all the way through her favorite songs let alone albums worth of music.

Sunday was dull for her; spent at Fatso Burger staring into the bubbling pit of grease, waiting for the fries to cook. If the never-moving hand of the clock wasn't enough to drive Dorothy crazy, coming home to a note from her mother telling her of the things she missed out on acted as a hammer on the head. The message scribbled for her mentioned how two boys stopped by looking to hangout with her while she was at work, making Dory feel twice as tired as she thought about how it was another day wasted at work rather than with friends.

All it took was one more study hall with her new devil-on-the-shoulder friend to commit to the dream of quitting.

When Monday's study hall came, Dorothy was surprised to find herself sitting across from a curly haired boy two weeks in a row. "Is Eric still not allowed to have his car?" She asked, wondering if Hyde was stuck without a place to sleep like he had been the Monday before.

"Nah, he got that back today, finally free again." He looked off at the rest of the room, body language relaxed in a way that suggested he wasn't interested in the conversation, "think I'll skip the class before this for a nap now, I already speak English."

Dory made an unattractive snort at his attempt to be nonchalant, she could see that he wouldn't have made the change if it wasn't for him finding a friend in Study Hall. Even though she doubted it was out of any deep interest she teased him anyways, "Aww, how sweet, switching up your sleep schedule just to spend time with me? I'm flattered."

Steven kept his usual cool, smirking at her instead of showing signs of embarrassment, "As you should be."

Dorothy changed the subject to question him, "So, you stopped by yesterday?", knowing it must have been him and Michael based off the description her mother left in the note.

"Kelso wouldn't shut up until I showed him where you lived, plus there was no where else to go with Forman's basement still off the table."

Dorothy's lips curled up towards her nose in displeasure, "Way to throw me under the bus, if he starts showing up outside my bedroom window I'm coming after you with a vengeance."

Steven's smirk broke into a smile, "He will, and chances are, Fez will be with him."

"You better sleep with one eye open" pointing her pencil at him as a threat, yet she was hardly intimidating.

He didn't ease up, amused by his own antics, "You should probably start looking under your bed and in your closet, those are Fez's favorite places."

"I'm going to punch you."

"Hope you have very modest flannel PJ's." As the words left Stevens mouth he managed to dodge the sharpened pencil being hurled towards his face.

"You should go back to sleeping in Eric's car." She deadpanned, still glaring at him even though she didn't feel angry about the situation. She doubted she would go home to find two boys hiding in her closet.

"You should swing by Forman's basement today." Hyde quickly added, "sure Eric would want to see you."

As much as Steven was enjoying his time with Dorothy, he wanted to push her and Eric together. If Eric was interested in her it would free up Donna's time, allowing him to get more private moments with the redhead he had liked since elementary school. Even with how cool Dorothy was turning out to be, Hyde couldn't pass up a chance to pursue Donna.

She shrugged in response, her posture drooping immediately at having to turn down another hangout "I have work today."

"Quit" Hyde spoke without any hesitation, gaining a quiet laugh from the dark-haired teen who was trying not to test the teachers patience with loud gestures.

"Ironic enough, I was just thinking about quitting after today."

Nodding in approval Steven congratulated himself, "well I've done my good deed for the day; stopping another soul from being sold to corporate America."

The end of the day bell surprised the pair; time went faster when you stopped counting the minutes.

The gang of life-long friends eagerly waited for Steven to appear so they could finally return to the normal routine of piling in Eric's car and heading to his basement. But with Dorothy by Hyde's side as they walked out of the school, it was clear that the normal routine was at risk of being changed.

"Are they dating now?" Eric asked his friends, having seen them together a few times over the past week didn't raise any questions but finding the future-criminal of the group walking out of school instead of waking up in the back of the vista cruiser made him curious.

"Why? Jealous?" Jackie snapped at him, although sounding like her usual tone, her motives were deeper. She needed to know if her new best friends love interest wanted another girl.

Taking a step back as if her words had shoved him Eric looked around, eyes wide with confused panic, "What? No!Why would I, no, it's cool" Eric bobbed his head and stood tall, giving an air of cool acceptance, but his eyes moved to stare down the pair as they stood by Dory's car saying their goodbyes, looking for signs of romance between them.

The look didn't go unnoticed by Jackie who quickly spun to examine Donna, making sure she noticed the same thing. The taller girl rolled her eyes, crossed her arms and leaned back against the trusty Vista cruiser, not wanting to play into Jackie's hunt for drama. Although she wasn't as defensive as her fiery friend, watching Eric keep his eyes on Dorothy did stir discomfort in her that she'd never really felt before in life. Watching him smile as Dorothy turned and waved happily in his direction before getting in her car made Donna feel even more knots form in her gut.

"Do you think he will mind if I still pursue her?" Fez asked, wanting to make sure it was acceptable before moving forward with his usual tactics.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure they'll love that." Eric's words oozed sarcasm that was lost on the foreign exchange student, even though he knew there was a lack of understanding Eric didn't elaborate, thinking it might be funny to watch Hyde punch someone other than Kelso.

Walking right up to Eric, Hyde leaned in slightly, a serious look on his face, "Forman, ready to burn some incense? Cuz' I am." A grin spread across all the boys faces, knowing it was going to turn out to be a good day.

 _Wednesday, Forman's front porch_

Dorothy stood awkwardly in front of what she thought was the right house. After quitting work Monday night, she wanted to make the most of her new free time. Tuesday was spent bowling with her best friends, or trying to; it was more difficult to play after inhaling enough marijuana for 3 people to yourself. Today she decided to take up the past offers to come over to Eric's house, but instead found herself standing on the porch for nearly five minutes. She felt stupid for being so nervous to knock, she had been invited over by Eric before he was grounded and again the past two days by Kelso and Hyde, it felt strange to just show up though. Taking a breath she rung the doorbell, if it was possible to press one timidly then she did it.

When the door opened Dory stood face to face with a short, blonde woman with a large smile on her face, "Hello!" her voice was high pitched but the friendliness made it comforting.

"Hi, I'm Dorothy, is Eric home?" She wasn't sure if Eric would have mentioned her to his family, but it was impolite to not introduce herself.

Hearing that she was there for Eric and not Laurie Mrs. Forman nearly jumped in excitement. Her little boy was making friends with lovely young ladies, and while that fact might weight heavy one day, for now it made her proud to see Eric coming out of his shell. "Oh yes, of course, come in!"

Stepping through the thresh hold, Dorothy stood to the side, unsure of where to go.

As if reading her mind Eric's mother spoke, "I'll get him, ERIC!"

Dorothy flinched in surprise that such a petite woman could yell so loudly, it was almost comical.

Almost instantly a swing door opened a little too quickly, causing it to fling back into Eric's face before he fumbled to open it again. "Yeah mom?," eyes nearly bugging out of his head. Dorothy recognized that he was trying not to look like he was high, "Oh, hey Dory, you're just in time to watch Kelso make an ass out of himself."

Snorting she answered, "Always finding new ways to do that, huh?"

"He's making popcorn, and failing quite horribly" Eric chuckled while he spoke until a balding man walked down the stairs and pointed at his son, "Eric, stop hanging out with dumbasses." Shaking his head, the man continued to the lounging chair. Dorothy might have giggled if she knew the family better, but feeling slightly uncomfortable with the strict tone she hurried over to Eric, stopping briefly to turn to Mrs. Forman before following him into the kitchen, "Nice meeting you."

Instantly she was greeted by Jackie's voice, "What's the slut doing here?"

Instead of hitting the small girl like she wanted to, Dorothy swallowed her first instinct and used monotone sarcasm instead, "To steal your boyfriend, obviously."

Fez stepped closer to her in order to stand face to face, a toothy grin spread across his face, "If you are a slut, will you do it with me?" It took a second for Dorothy to process his accent, while she was Fez turned and looked at Eric to make sure he said it correctly. Once it registered she couldn't help but to burst out laughing, "I would but I'm only into orgy's."

The look of confusion on the hopeful virgins face was enough to stir another burst of laughter until Kelso spoke,"Woah, if you need more people I'm in." Jackie quickly kicked him in the shin, not willing to put up with any of Michael's pig headed thoughts.

Equally as irritated by his open flirting Dorothy answered without any playfulness in her tone,eager to move on from what was supposed to be fun joking, "Just focus on the popcorn, don't forget to melt extra butter too."

"Don't tell him what to do!" Jackie defended, not letting anyone else control her boyfriend.

After a moment of half-tense silence Eric spoke to Dory and Fez, nodding towards the basement door, "do you wanna go-"

"Yep" cutting him off and heading to the door quickly, Dorothy was eager to get away from the relationship drama.

When out of sight Jackie's demanding voice could still be heard, "Michael, you idiot, add butter!"

When the three pairs of feet got down the stairs there was a strange silence between Donna and Steven, luckily Eric didn't seem to notice as he hopped over the couch to gather the scattered playing cards.

Sitting in the remaining lawn chair, leaving Fez to rest on the floor, Dorothy tried not to look between Donna and Hyde, not sure why there was such a feeling of discomfort. Ignoring the tension she leaned in towards the coffee table, "Whatcha playing?"

"Poker is the name of the game" Eric went to shuffle the cards from one hand to the other, only to send them flying to the floor. Eric pursed his lips, clearly displeased that his attempt to seem cool failed like it usually did.

"Smooth" Hyde commented, wondering how his uncoordinated friend was the center of Donna's attention.

Eric held up a hand in defense, "I may not be good at shuffling, but I am... also not good at poker" He nodded his head, purposely taking as if he were complementing himself. Dorothy laughed lightly, appreciating the way he owned his awkwardness. This simple reaction led to more trouble than she knew; as she was laughing at Eric, Donna was watching Eric's eyes light up at the new girls attention while Hyde was looking at the three friends with a scowl, not understanding how both Dory and Donna were made so happy by Eric.

"Wait, its a Wednesday." Eric announced, gaining looks of confusion.

"Yeah, and yesterday was Tuesday" Donna sassed, waiting for a reply from him that would make sense.

Hearing the conversation as they returned with popcorn Michael chimed in, excited to contribute, "Yeah and tomorrows Thursday!" He looked at his friends, as if waiting for a pat on the back before pushing his way onto the couch, Fez joining him to be close to the popcorn, making it difficult for Eric to stay comfortable in his seat.

Moving to the coffee table in front of Dory, Eric continued, "No, I mean, Dory, don't you work Wednesdays?"

"I quit, was tired of having no time to go out."

"Right on! Well, we were thinking of heading to a disco this weekend, could be fun, you want to go?"

The pair were oblivious to the way Jackie's eyes snapped to Donna, looking to see if she was going to step in and oblivious to the way Hyde smirked as he saw Eric take interest in Dory, raising his chance with the beautiful redhead.

Dory thought for a second, she didn't dance well but she figured Eric probably didn't either, "If you dance as well as you shuffle cards then yes."

Jackie cut into their conversation, hoping to stop the new girl from further intruding, "Eric, there aren't enough seats in the car."

"She can sit in my lap" Fez offered, smiling sweetly at the two dark-haired brunettes.

"No Fez" Jackie scowled

Fez put his hands up to stop the girls from fighting over him, "You can sit in my lap instead, no need to fight."

"If they're sitting on anyone's lap its gonna be mine!" Michael determined, wanting to make sure that everyone knew that the best looking guy should be used as a car seat when it came to pretty girls.

"Perfect! Jackie you can share a seat with Kelso" Eric cut in,hoping that ending Jackies protests would give Dory room to breath without feeling unwelcome.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Friday afternoon, Point Place Mall_**

One of Jackie's most finely tuned skills was making other girls feel inferior to her, as a cheerleader it was necessary to speak the language of "bitch" very fluently. She never missed a chance to practice, especially when there was a double motivation of keeping her claim on her boyfriend. Walking through the mall with Michael she would keep an eye out for other attractive girls, making sure to hold onto his arm and bat her eyelashes at him and giggle sweetly as other women walked by. This was an easy way to get complements at the perfect moments, where she was sure people around would hear them and know who Michael was devoted to. It was a whole different game though when he had a female friend, one who seemed to let Jackie's territorial behavior just roll off her shoulders. While walking arm-in-arm through the shopping mall, Jackie was cut off mid sentence by Michael shouting out to get the attention of the new threat.

"Dorothy! Hey!" Michael went running off, like an excited puppy who broke free of a leash, stopping so close to Dorothy and her blonde friend that the pair took a step back to make sure he didn't collide with them.

"Check out these awesome kicks I got!" Before Michael could dig his new shoes out of the store bag he was distracted by the chest of Dorothy's friend, letting his voice lower into a smooth, flirtatious tone as he eyed her up and down and forgot all about his shoes, "Hey, how's it going? I'm Michael"

Dorothy rolled her eyes as her friend giggled, unlike Dory, Allison enjoyed guys openly fawning over her body rather than her personality, " Allison, this is Kelso"

Allison's expression immediately changed, recognizing the name as Jackie Burkharts boyfriend. As much as she enjoyed a good make out session with a new, cute boy she had a strict no-taken-men rule. "Nice to meet you" Allison's response was polite but held an undertone of disinterest that Kelso didn't pick up on.

Before Dorothy could even ask where Jackie was to stop Kelso's flirting, the question was answered as Jackie seamlessly wrapped herself around her man and sent the girls a smile laced with malice, "Dory, what a surprise seeing you here, I didn't think the Mall sold anything trashy enough for you."

Much to Jackie's displeasure, Dorothy responded with a carefree attitude that perfectly pushed her buttons, "It's such a shame, ya know? But at least its not a complete waste since I get to make some friends, you'd be surprised how many girls leave their boyfriends waiting around for them to finish shopping, right Michael?"

"I know, right!? I don't know how it takes so long to try stuff on, I know like... right away when something looks good on me. But then again, not everyone looks this good."

Dorothy struggled not to laugh, Kelso being clueless worked out perfectly in making Jackie go from confident to embarrassed that her boyfriend couldn't tell when to shut up, but it was a fleeting win.

"Thats so true for us Michael," She patted him on the chest and left her hand there before looking over her shoulder at the fellow brunette, "you must try on 100 outfits and still struggle to find one that looks good."

Dorothy didn't have an immediate comeback, as much as Jackie's defensiveness amused her it didn't stop the harsh words from causing a small dent in her good mood. It annoyed her that she might have to do this every time they were around each other.

Allison came to her friends aid, aiming for her words to get a reaction out of Kelso that would upset Jackie, "Maybe you should just be naked all the time Dory, why waste time on shopping."

"That is a great idea!" Michael nearly yelled, resulting in Jackie's heel smashing into his toes as punishment.

Dory and Allison won the war, but it didn't go without a bit of injury to the winning side. Instead of browsing around the music store, Allison pulled her friend into her favorite shops to find a dress for the disco. Even if Jackie's attack could easily be brushed aside by Dory, her friend wasn't one to let things go. After 30 minutes of store-hopping the pair walked out with the perfect dress for Saturday.

 ** _Saturday, night of the disco_**

Dory had planned on bell bottoms and a colorful top, not feeling a need to dress up before Allison insisted, but she had to admit to herself that she felt stronger as she stood in front of her mirror in a flowy, dark red halter-style dress. Even though she casually wore dresses in the summer, it felt different to doll up to go out, especially when she knew it would leave no room for a certain petty cheerleader to mock her. The front of her hair was pulled back in two braids, showing off her lovely face while still letting her waves fall down her shoulders and touch her exposed back. Mascara, dark eye-shadow and lipstick went a long way for Dorothy, easily changing her look from pretty to sexy. Although she was raised not to over appreciate herself in shallow ways, it felt good to twirl in front of a mirror and smile at her reflection once in awhile.

Much to her mothers displeasure, Dorothy's father spun his daughter around the living room, encouraging her to have fun rather than supporting his wife's comment about wearing a sweater and removing the lipstick. After answering all of her mothers questions about who was going and where and of course questions about boys, she started to relax knowing her daughter wasn't going out with a potential lover. Once the doorbell rang, letting Dory know her ride had arrived, her dad swiftly moved to grab her mom, pulling her close to dance with her and start off their own relaxing evening at home alone.

Eric had left the car running even though he was often worrying about gas money, but when he saw Dory he didn't care anymore as he stood staring at her instead of rushing back to the car. Eric was interested in Donna, but he was also a normal teenage boy and couldn't help but to stare and feel flushed, especially when the new girl was both pretty and cool to hangout with.

"Hey, you ready to go?" Dory cheerfully greeted, only to be met with a incoherent stream of mumbling, " Do you need to use the bathroom or something?"

"Yes! Bathroom!" Eric hurried past his new friend and continued up the stairs, not noticing there was a bathroom at the bottom and ignoring the strange looks from Dory's parents.

"Last door down the hall!" Dory called up to him, she knew Eric could be awkward but couldn't help but to be confused. Her gut told her that her looks had made him turn to jelly, but her mind said that couldn't be the case. Not only did she know he liked Donna, but she couldn't imagine simply putting on makeup and a new outfit would leave someone so speechless. Seemed like something that would happen in a bad sitcom, not in real life.

"He seems nervous," Her father remarked, "he's not driving is he?"

"The anxiety will keep him awake at the wheel for the long drive." Dorothy joked, smiling widely once her father gave her a pointed stare.

Eric came strutting down the steps, now more gathered and relaxed. He waved hello before following Dory out the door and to the car, opening the door for her as Jackie scooted over into her boyfriends lap, leaving her a space next to Fez.

"What took you so long, man?" Hyde complained as he tapped his fingers against the outside of the car door.

Eric pulled out of the driveway, looking left and right while avoiding eye contact, "I had to pee."

"Didn't you go before we left?" Donna asked innocently, giving him a questioning stare.

"What are you, the pee police!?" Eric laughed nervously after his quick reply, knowing that his snapping was only making him seem suspicious even though nothing happened.

The car's atmosphere was quickly going from excited to uncomfortable, luckily Fez either didn't notice the discomfort or didn't care as he started asking Dory about how many buttons on his blouse he should leave open, allowing the car conversation to slowly slip into a friendly one, minus occasional snarky remarks from the tiniest girl in the group.

By the time the car full of teenagers parked, Kelso was bouncing with excitement, ready to show off his moves and gain appreciative stares at his backside in his butt-hugging pants. Practically flinging Jackie off his lap by standing too quickly he cheered at his friends, "Alright, lets boogie!"

The couple rushed ahead to stand in the short entry line, leaving the rest of the group to shake their heads and follow a few steps behind.

"How much do you want to bet he's going to drop her on her ass?" Dorothy pondered out loud, gaining chuckles from her new friends at the thought. It was nice to see that she wasn't the only one who wasn't Jackie's biggest fan.

"I'd bet my G.I Joe on it" Eric said, knowing how clumsy his pretty-boy friend could be.

They were not disappointed, after a few minutes of watching the couple on the dance floor it was clear that Kelso had no idea what he was doing. After flailing around Jackie tried to stop him and show him how to twirl and dip her. Instead, he got over excited and flung her too hard, causing her to fly backwards and slip out of his grasp, landing hard on the floor. If looks could kill there would be one less person coming back to Point Place tonight.

"Kelso looks like he's being electrocuted" Eric pointed out, trying to make conversation with his friends who were all sitting at a table rather than braving the dance floor yet.

"At least one person is having fun though" Donna remarked, not being subtle about the fact that she didn't come here to sit all night.

Interrupting Eric's chance to ask her to dance, Jackie stormed over and released her frustration out on them rather than Michael, "This was a stupid idea to come here, Eric!"

"What? You're the one who brought it up!" He defended himself, looking around at the table for reinforcement.

Jackie turned around to move her glare from Eric and onto her boyfriend as he ran up to her, finally noticing she was gone, "Jackie, where'd you go?"

"I had to get something for you to bite on, cause I told everyone you were having a seizure!" Pushing Michael away she pulled up an extra chair and sat down, crossing her limbs to show that she wasn't happy.

Not interested in their relationship issue the friends blocked them out and continued talking.

"When do they play the disco music?" Fez asked, looking to Hyde for answers.

"This is disco music" Donna smiled, knowing Fez didn't know any better.

Fez looked at her as if she was the one who didn't know any better, "No, no. This is samba."

Hyde jumped in, assuring Fez that this was disco before explaining that it was crap.

Instead of agreeing with Hyde he jumped to his feet, stating his feelings of warmth for the music Hyde deemed crap.

"Come Jackie! Let's get down!"

Instead of being deterred by her refusal, he gently turned Jackies face towards him and spoke strongly, "Don't resist me mama, it's boogie time!" Before Jackie could decide she was swept out of the chair and onto the dance floor. Unlike her previous dance partner, Fez knew what he was doing. Ignoring Michael's jealous comments the friends watched on in amazement as Jackie was picked up and spun around, looking like a skilled pair of dancers. It was amazing how Fez went from "the silly foreigner" to looking like a mature, sexy samba master. It wasn't long before the groups concentration was broken by a young man approaching the table, or more specifically: Dory.

"Hi, I'm Ryan, I was wondering if you'd like to dance?" the shaggy haired blonde smiled kindly, hope in his eyes for a yes.

"Sure, but I have to warn you that I can't dance well." She wished she could swing around like Jackie and Fez, but having never done more than playful twirls in her living room with family she was sure she'd stumble if she tried to do more.

He just laughed and breathed a sigh of relief, "I was about to say the same thing to you."

The pair walked off to the dance floor, making casual conversation and laughing as they both struggled to figure out how to comfortably move to the music. After a few songs the pair split up, Dory had a nice time but after sensing he wanted the night to continue somewhere else she headed back to her seat to find a bitter looking Eric and a fuming Kelso. Following their line of sight it was clearly because the women they wanted were both dancing with their friends. It was surprising to see Hyde dancing with Donna instead of Eric, it was even more surprising to watch him lean close to her and stare deeply.

Before a small sinking feeling could go deeper into her belly, Eric stood up and asked her to dance. It wasn't as fun as her first few dances though, instead of laughing and having fun Eric didn't take his eyes off Donna until Dory flicked his face.

"Hey, I know you're jealous but try not to make it so obvious, its just a dance."

Eric tore his eyes away from the scene to meet Dory's gray-green eyes, "I know, sorry."

He slowly turned her, bringing her flush against him on the pull back, their breath hot on each others faces. Dory didn't miss the flick of his eyes over to the redhead and knew that the show of intimacy was to try to get Donna to feel as jealous as he did.

"Instead of playing games why not just ask her for the next dance or talk to her. Or, get this crazy concept, ask her out!"

"It's more complicated-" Before Eric could finish his excuse Dory pushed off from Eric and intentionally stumbled right into Donna and Steven, successfully breaking them apart.

"Sorry, Eric isn't the smoothest dance partner." Dory apologized to them, looking at Eric to make sure he would help himself by playing along. Although Donna seemed amused, Hyde clearly wasn't, a look of annoyed suspicion on his face.

Dory went further to help Eric out, "Maybe you should try to teach him for a dance or two Donna, I'm not much help with that."

"It's true, it's like the blind leading the blind" Eric nodded, playing along with Dorothy's attempt at match-making.

Donna smiled, clearly amused by Eric, "Well, for the safety of the other dancers I better help before you fling someone into the crowd again." She took his arm and thanked Hyde for the dance before pulling Eric into the crowd, directing him on how to move without stepping on her feet.

"Smooth" Steven commented, raising his eyebrow, questioning why Dory would push Donna and Eric together.

"Not as smooth as your dance moves" Dory snapped her fingers before pointing them at Hyde in a gun-slinger fashion.

Even though he rolled his eyes instead of cracking a smile he held his hand out for her to take: smiling, Dory accepted his dance offer. Although she still moved a little awkwardly, it was easier to dance when your partner knew what they were doing. The music started playing a succession of slower songs, signifying that the end of the night was getting closer.

"It's a surprising sight" Dory started conversation as they were dancing closely

"What? Forman not knocking everyone over?"

Chuckling she replied, "No, you conforming. You're not as bad as I thought a rock'N'roller would be."

He looked down at her, a smile slowly forming on his mouth as he replied jokingly, "Well, you're just as bad as you said you would be"

"Kelso is a bitch," Both Steven and Dorothy were startled, Fez had managed to appear out of thin air next to them, hands on his hips in anger, "he hung me upside down! He does not even like Jackie!"

"Just find someone else to dance with Fez" Hyde suggested, not feeling too bad for his friend since he had tried to woo someones girlfriend.

The pair shook their heads and shared a laugh as Fez stormed away, not learning his lesson as he cut into Donna and Eric's dance. Eric looked around with an expression of disbelief, as if trying to see if anyone else was seeing Fez whisk Donna away. After realizing he lost his dance partner he walked out of the building, looking deflated.

"I can't believe fez, man"

Dory went back to leaning into the dance instead of looking over her shoulder to watch the feisty foreigner dance, "He's a regular Casanova, who knew."

Steven let himself relax again, he was surprised to find himself feeling as comfortable being intimate in public with someone he hadn't know for much time as he did when dancing with his long term crush. Dory rested on his shoulder, clearly getting tired now that it was getting close to midnight, but the intimate position didn't make Steven feel uneasy. Looking up from the floor and back at Donna and Fez he was reminded of how something else in life felt unattainable.

"I don't know how he does it"

Dory lifted her head, realizing she would start dozing off if she kept it on his shoulder, and responded with a yawn, "Using dancing as the language of love, and Fez apparently knows how to speak that."

"No, Forman, two pretty girls digging on him."

Dorothy lifted her head, looking around to see who Eric had found to dance with him, and instead found that most of the dance floor had cleared out. She realized quickly that Hyde meant her, causing her to laugh. She didn't feel like explaining to him that he was wrong about her, that if anything she was developing a crush on the curly haired stoner not his socially awkward friend. "Well, maybe while you and Eric are fighting over Donna, Fez will woo her instead."

Steven scoffed and crinkled his nose up, he couldn't wrap his head around Donna and Eric but the thought of Fez getting her was something out of a fantasy, "Yeah, right."


	7. Chapter 7

Like every year, the last few weeks of school dragged on for the teenagers of Point Place, Wisconsin. Everyone was excited for summer so they could sit and do nothing, and that was exactly what Dorothy was doing in Eric Forman's basement. Over the last few weeks of school she had spent more than half her free time with this new group of friends, she still made time for herself and her long term friends, but as the weeks rolled on Dory found herself spending time with every member of the strange group of teens.

A lot of the time was spent with Eric and Steven, she began to realize that the two were somewhat inseparable. For the two being best friends it was odd to Dory that Steven was significantly more quiet when she and him weren't hanging out alone. When smoking after school and passing time in study hall Dory and Hyde always managed to find something to talk about. They would go from rambling about the corruption of the world to laughing at the way each others voices would crack when they tried to smoke and speak at the same time. When other people were around he was hardly vocal other than the occasional burn. To be fair it wasn't easy to join Eric and Dory's debates about super heroes as they usually ended up heated. For the most part Dorothy had fun reading comics but after awhile she would get just as annoyed as the others at Eric's constant comic references. Whenever he would go on about them too long she would start an argument with him about why the hero was flawed or weak, which would often result in him getting so mad that he'd stop talking or briefly leave the room.

Michael popped up more than Dory appreciated at first, a lot of hangouts ended up with her having to smack him for being pigheaded. When Kelso learned that Dory had a dog he switched from interested in her to interested in seeing Toto as much as possible. He would show up at her house all times of the day to run around the yard with the French Spaniel: it was nice to see the side of him that wasn't blowing things up or thinking with his body. All the walks they took together with Toto were much needed to make up for Dory's sweet tooth. She always liked sweets in moderation but with Fez's favorite place being the candy store, Dory couldn't help but to end up leaving with just as much candy as he did.

It took some time to become closer with the girls. Bonding with Donna started when she barged out of the basement as Dory was about to enter, instead of continuing past her Dory asked what happened. After an explosion of rage about Jackie supporting the guys sexist antics the pair bonded over mutual anger about societies expectations of women to become home-makers. It became a regular pastime to sit together and complain about parents, teachers and friends treating them like they needed to be someone different. Once summer started the two had regular sleepovers, sometimes relaxing by putting on a record and eating snacks and other times would stay up sharing talents. Donna would read her stories aloud while Dory would perform songs for Donna. Sleepovers changed though once Jackie caught wind of them spending time together and decided to invite herself.

Dory didn't understand why she would come, for the first few sleepovers Jackie would glare at her, convinced that Toto was an excuse to get close to Kelso and steal him away. When the trio went to Dory's house instead of Donna's, Jackie had a change of heart when she saw that another girl in the group had stuffed animals on their bed. With further investigating, Jackie found that behind the band t-shirts, Dory had as many cute dresses as she did.

Apparently having a girly side saved Dorothy from Jackie's continued hostility. Not that her friendship was much different, instead of death stares and constant insults it was smiles and frequent insults. On the plus side it also meant that she would pay for things and share any gossip she learned from Kelso about the boys, mostly it wasn't that exciting of news though.

Sometimes it was almost fun to be with Jackie, Dory enjoyed dressing up and looking nice but always felt a little out of place when she did it too often, with Jackie it felt normal. Instead of wearing jeans all summer Dory felt more free to wear dresses with Jackie's encouraging. Even with that benefit it was hard to be sure if it was worth it as she would rip the tougher girls away from smoke circles to watch her practice cheer-leading or pick out new outfits.

It was perfect that Kelso was full of energy because spending time with Jackie could be exhausting. It wasn't often that he was quiet, but today after spending all night on the phone with Jackie he was passed out on Eric's couch. She had him read her Nancy Drew until she fell asleep, but each time he heard her start to snore and stopped reading she would instantly wake back up and ask why he stopped. This wouldn't be an issue for the ball of energy if he had gotten to sleep in late the next morning, but instead his mom woke him for the early morning church mass followed by errands. He wasn't missing much by being asleep: Steven, Eric and Donna sat staring blankly at the television, watching reruns of Tom&Jerry while Fez and Dory sat on the floor playing go-fish, the only card game Fez seemed to understand yet.

"This episode has been on every morning this week." Steven complained, getting tired of watching the cartoon animals play tennis against each other. No one answered him at first, knowing full well he was right but having nothing new to offer.

"You could wake up Michael and tell him there's an ice cream truck outside" Donna suggested, remembering that Dory had decided to tie his shoelaces together while he slept. Hyde shrugged, offering a "whatever" in return.

Eric followed his friends nonchalant attitude, "Yeah I mean, how many times can we watch him get hurt before it loses its spark?" All pairs of eyes turned to him, looking at him like he was crazy.

"Never." Donna answered as if it was obvious.

Eric nodded in agreement, stood up and headed to the door, opening it and slamming it shut as if he just came in, causing Michael to wake up at the sudden noise. Eric stopped to look at his fiends, acting convincingly he shouted, "Ice cream man is going down the street!"

Instantly Kelso jumped up and crashed into the coffee table, stumbling over it entirely, causing Fez and Dory to quickly roll out of the way so they weren't caught in the damage. Instead of being deterred, Kelso tried to get outside, crawling out the door and up the stairs in his mission to get ice cream.

Laughing along with her friends Donna confirmed that it never got old to watch Kelso run around like an idiot, "That was better than I expected."

Fez stopped laughing suddenly, "Wait, there is not really ice cream, yes?" The thought of missing out on the chance to have something sugary worried the foreign boy, but the smiles and head-shaking of his friends made him feel more at ease that it was indeed a lie.

It was fully confirmed though as Michel came back inside, shoes in hand, without any treats. Kelso looked like a little kid as he plopped down on the couch, examining his scrapped elbow with a pout as he whined about never getting anything good.

Fez tried to convince him that he was well off instead of dwelling on what he didn't have, "You have a woman, that is good. Who needs ice cream when you have a lady?"

As if her ears were burning Jackie burst through the door, "Guess what!?"

She stood, waiting with open arms for someone to respond to her, Jackie Burkhart wasn't going to make an important announcement unless she knew everyone's attention was on her. Rolling his eyes Hyde spoke up for the collective, "What Jackie?"

"Steven Carfagno's parents are out of town and he's having a party late tonight! He said I could bring whoever I wanted." Jackie nodded her head like it was a big deal that he gave her permission before gasping, "Dory, come help me pick out an outfit!"

Glancing at the clock Dory's stomach dropped, it was barley 1 in the afternoon and Jackie surely expected her to sit and give complements all the way up to the start of the party. Playing dress up lost its fun after an hour or so.

The guys cackled at Dorothy's clear dread, glad that they didn't have to be a part of it.

"Michael, you too." Jackie demanded, cutting through the laughter.

"What? Why do I haveta'?" he was one foot stomping away from becoming a toddler.

Jackie glared at him, ready to punish him for treating precious time with her as if it were a burden, "Now Michael!"

He stood up and dragging his feet went to join his lady at her side, causing her to smile widely before looking expectantly at Dory. She knew better than to argue, besides at least she would have someone with her to divide Jackie's need for attention with.

Before they walked out, leaving a room of grinning friends behind, Jackie stopped and turned to Donna, "You should come too, so you can see what girls are supposed to look like."

Donna scrunched up her nose in annoyance, "I'll pass".

Displeased with yet another friend resisting her directions Jackie used the ace card up her sleeve, "Fine, then none of you are going to the party. There's going to be alcohol" she looked to Hyde then over to Eric and Fez as she continued, "and drunk cheerleaders, but none of you will get to enjoy."

Fez looked at the spunky girl with wide-eyes, "Ohh cheerleaders, how I would love to go the the party" He turned to Donna, a pleading look in his doe eyes.

"Come on Donna, take one for the team" Eric pushed, eager to do something other than sit in the house all day and night.

As much as she hated the idea of giving in to the pressures, Donna was excited to hear about the party before getting the ultimatum and had no desire to sit and do nothing again. Sighing she stood up and joined her two equally unexcited friends as they trudged up the basement stairs, Jackie clapping in success behind them.

Getting ready with Jackie took just as long as Dory expected and unsurprisingly it ended with them going to the mall. Even with three people giving opinions and complements, it still took Jackie 2 and a half hours to decide on a hair-do and outfit, and even when she found the perfect dress she couldn't find a pair of shoes in her large collection that matched perfectly.

Instead of leaving the shoe store with one pair of shoes to go with her outfit she left with three, figuring to was better to have more options. Now satisfied with her outcome Jackie decided to focus her attention on her friends.

"Dory, since we cant both wear paisley pattern, you should wear that floral mini dress, with the long bell sleeves. Your arms are looking a little fat today so you shouldn't try to draw extra attention to them with small straps."

Donna and Dory exchanged a look, both understanding what it's like to be on the receiving end of Jackie's insults, and knowing that sometimes it was just easier to let her go on instead of flicking her or insulting her in return.

Dory didn't really care what she wore though, Jackie could dress her in a neon pink and yellow jumpsuit as long as it meant getting free alcohol and having fun, "Sounds good."

Jackie then turned to Donna and smirked, "You should dress up too Donna, look pretty for your lover-boy Eric."

"Jackie!" Donna looked peeved at her small friend, not wanting anyone to know she liked Eric. She figured that everyone might know about the kiss they shared but since nothing was serious and nothing had happened since then she didn't feel comfortable with Jackie running around telling people she had a crush on him. Eric hadn't shown any extra signs of interest and Donna wasn't sure if that was because he was a dillhole or because he wasn't interested anymore. Jackie talking about her feelings when Eric and she were still just friends could cause an awkward situation if he didn't feel the same.

"What!?" Jackie replied with a snap

Kelso came to the aid of his girlfriend, assuring Donna that Jackie wasn't saying anything new, "Relax Donna, everyone knows, you're basically a couple now."

"Yeah, whatever." Donna didn't have anything to say, at least nothing she could say comfortably. Donna was mostly worried about losing her friendship with Eric if they started dating, too many people lose friendships when they break up and Donna didn't want that. There was also a worry that with Dory being around so often, Eric would start to question his feelings for Donna. The confident redhead knew that he liked her, and had shown interest in being with her, but it wasn't hard to notice the way he checked Dory out. After thinking about it during the ride home from the mall, she decided that maybe she would try to make another small move on Eric tonight instead of waiting for a shy boy to act first.


	8. Chapter 8

**Ch 8**

 **Hey! Lots of followers and favorites, it's exciting! Thanks everyone, let me know if there's anything you like/dislike (especially like, because complements fuel my soul)**

The party was in full swing by the time Jackie and her friends had arrived. Drunken teenagers were filling the large house, making so much noise that it was surprising that the cops hadn't been called. Couples were making out anywhere they could sit comfortably, oblivious to the groups of friends playing games and wrestling near by, shouting as they played.

"Alright, lets find the beer." Hyde spoke, ready to search the house for the golden nectar of the gods. After paying 3 dollars to get into the party there better be beer.

Unlike the rest of her boyfriends friends, Jackie couldn't care less. Rolling her eyes she walked away to find the other cheerleaders. Tonight was a perfect event to show off her new outfit and keep her rank in the chain of popularity and power on the social ladder.

Before the remaining friends could split up to search, a bright light shone down on two kegs located across the room in the entry way of the kitchen. The crowd parted before Steven, as if he were Moses parting the red sea, salvation on the other side. The group of friends followed him, in just as much of a trance at the beautiful sight. Luckily, they weren't empty, allowing the teens to get their fill.

"I've never seen so many people kissing, it is like the start of a beautiful dream!" Fez looked around in wonder , holding his cup of beer close to his face like a child would hold a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day.

"Your dreams start with a room of people making out?" Donna asked like she couldn't believe it

Quickly placing her hand on the redheads shoulder, Dory cut off Fez from answering, "Don't ask questions that you don't really want the answer to." Donna instantly curled her nose up, picturing Fez having an orgy dream was something she didn't want to think about.

Taking the attention away from Fez's remark Michael nodded eagerly, "There are a lot of pretty girls here, and beer totally makes them wanna do it!"

"I love beer" Fez agreed, thinking of all the possibilities of the night while Dory lightly hit Michel on the arm for talking about being unfaithful to Jackie. She may be a bitch but that didn't warrant being cheated on.

Ignoring Dory and Donna's glares he continued his shallow appreciation of the opposite sex,"Speaking of beautiful ladies," Kelso said while looking at the familiar blonde walking towards them.

"Hey Allison" Dorothy greeted after pinching Kelso's arm, gaining looks of surprise from four pairs of eyes. Dory had kept her friend groups separate so well that her current party crew gawked as if the thought of her socializing with others never crossed their minds, as if her regular absence was never questioned. Michael had rambled on to Fez, Eric and Hyde about the size of Allison's breasts after he met her at the mall for almost an hour, yet the connection hadn't seemed to register that Dorothy had a life none of them were a part of.

The tall newcomer hugged her dark haired friend, "What's shakin' little Dot?"

When Allison and Dory met in 6th grade they had been the same height, a sudden growth spurt last year had put several inches between the two, leaving Dory at 5'6 while Allison skyrocketed to 5'11. Even though Dorothy was above average height for a woman, Allison regularly liked to point out how small she was in comparison.

Dory smiled and pulled away from the hug, and like any good friend teased Allison back, "Be careful in the living room, it looked like there was a ceiling fan, wouldn't want you to get hit."

"Hug her again" Fez cut in, looking between the two girls with admiration. Fez looked at the disbelieving expressions on the females faces and tried again, "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask nicely. Please, will you hug her again?"

"You wouldn't rather have me hug you?" Allison asked, smirking before she batted her mascara covered eyelashes at the excited foreigner.

Unable to speak, Fez nodded, eyes wide with wonder as Allison laughed, amused by his easily ruffled feathers. Even as she wrapped her arms around him Fez remained frozen in place, probably in shock by his first major physical contact with an American woman.

The hug ended with Michael shoving Fez out of the way, eager to get a hug as well, but was met with disappointment as Allison crossed her arms over her chest, shutting him out.

His big brown eyes turned to Dorothy, as if looking for backup. Laughing at his disappointment Dory emphasized how unlikely it was that Allison would ever want someone known for cheating, "Kelso, you'd be more likely to see Eric doing a naked keg stand than get anything from Allison."

"Thanks for that image" Hyde commented, lip curled up in displeasure.

"Hey! I do exciting things!" Eric defended himself, holding up his hand as if to stop any further arguments, but it wasn't effective.

"Please, you're about as exciting as a wet rag, Forman."

Eric smiled at Hyde rather than getting annoyed any further, "If I recall, I'm the only one who streaked in front of a president, while you chickened out." Donna joined Eric in making his point by clucking in Hyde's face.

Kelso chimed in before anyone could attack him too,"I would have done it but I didn't want to blind anyone with my beauty. Some people can't handle how good looking I am."

"You are a pretty man" Fez agreed without hesitation, gaining questioning looks from his friends. Fez, unlike his American friends, didn't have societal homophobia etched into him.

Allison bumped him with her hip, happy to see a guy confident enough in his sexuality to admit when another man was attractive, "Look whose talking."

Confusion and offense swept his face, taking her too literally, "What? I am talking, of course."

" She's telling you that you're pretty too, Fez." Dorothy clarified, causing his expression to change from one of confusion into a giddy smile. Rolling their eyes at the pair, the group turned away from Fez and Allison, uninterested in watching him learn how to be flirted with. They watched Jackie and Kelso talk cute enough that there was no room for any more, so instead of waiting around the group found other things to occupy their time.

Michael's goal of finding a new lady was quickly crushed as Jackie turned him into eye candy, not allowing him to leave her side for anything other than the bathroom and to get her punch. Eric, Donna and Hyde stayed close to the keg, deciding it was the best place to relax and talk. As the night went on Steven found a way to make money as people approached the beer. He was able to convince at least eleven poor suckers that the three dollars at the door was a fee to get into a house with drunk ladies, and that there was an additional fee for alcohol.

The spirit of hustling was continued with Dory and Allison. Getting near the end of a round of beer pong, the two friends felt the pressure of loosing. They had bet money on the game and if their opponent made this last shot it would be over. Dory was confident that she could make their final shot if only given the chance, Allison granted her this opportunity by distracting the male opponents as they went to aim for the remaining cup. Instead of sinking it in the cup, the ball soared across the room, hitting a unsuspecting couple in the face. Allison had lifted her shirt up, exposing her lace bra and the large chest held by the thin piece of fabric. The rules never said anything about distraction tactics.

Using the money, Dory and Steven set up one of the greatest entertainments of the night. The group of friends surrounded Eric, taking turns convincing him that doing a keg stand in his underwear was the way to cap off the night. The pressure to impress his friends, especially the female ones, brought him close to the edge of his decision but Dory and Steven waving a combined $6 in his face was what put him over it. He shimmied out of his clothing, intentionally shaking his butt at Donna in hopes of hearing her laugh.

Steven grabbed one leg and Kelso grabbed the other and lifted him upside down onto the keg. He had held on surprisingly well, so well that teens standing near by stared to cheer. For a brief moment when he stood tall again Eric felt like a million bucks, holding his arms in the air giving his best Nixon peace signs. The victorious feeling didn't last more than ten minutes as the alcohol finally sunk into him. Forgetting about his clothing Eric stumbled his way to the front door, making it there quickly. There weren't many things that parted a crowd faster than someone who was about to puke.

After laughing at Eric's misfortune, the friends all looked at each other, silently questioning who would go after him. Dory fought the feeling of responsibility; It wasn't her fault he was an idiot who gave into peer pressure, but she did egg him on. Besides, he should at least have clothing. Sighing, annoyed with herself for having a motherly side, she volunteered by picking up his discarded clothing and filling a solo cup with water before following the path Eric took.

Dory found Eric on his knees, sitting back on his heels waiting for another wave of nausea to hit him. Dory placed his clothing down next to him before sitting on his other side, rubbing his back as he puked for the second time. Toto had puked enough as a puppy that it didn't make her sick to be around the smell of vomit, but it was still never pleasant.

"Well you proved your point, you're a regular party animal" Dorothy smirked at him, hoping he would see that she was poking fun at him for making himself sick in the name of proving he wasn't boring.

If it wasn't a chore to stay upright Eric might have rolled his eyes or looked over at her, but all he could muster was a half mumbled defense, "Spider-man couldn't have done a better handstand."

"Uh-huh" she decided not to point out how Spider-man didn't need two guys holding him up to do gymnastics. Instead she handed him the cup of water, at first sight Eric almost got sick again, being reminded of the alcohol he had drunk out of red cups that night. Dory noticed this and clarified, "It's water"

"Wow, you're so great" Eric beamed, genuinely happy to have someone taking care of him instead of simply making fun like friends often did.

"I know"

Eric's lips crashed against Dory's, landing more on the corner of her mouth than the center because of his impaired depth perception. He didn't get a chance to fix his landing as she shoved him away instantly, almost causing him to fall into his own pile of puke if he hadn't caught himself. He looked like a kicked puppy, Hyde had been telling him that Dory liked him, and he thought this act of kindness was proof.

Her nose was scrunched up in disgust, "Puke breath Eric." Dory hadn't let herself feel anything for Eric, she liked Donna too much for that, but now wasn't the time to dwell on Eric's actions. He was beyond shit faced and the situation was anything but charming.

He nodded, realizing how gross he was, "Right."

"How about we forget about this?" Dory asked, not wanting to deal with an awkward conversation.

Eric didn't get a chance to answer as a shadow caught the pairs eyes. Donna walked up and stared at him and did not look happy. Dory wished Donna hadn't seen Eric's drunk action but it was clear that she did as she tossed a bowl of pretzels into his lap, some falling into the vomit and some staying safe.

"Thought you could use these"

Eric, too drunk to realize that she was upset spoke with the same sense of glee as when he got the water, "You're amazing."

Donna shook her head, amazed that he was being so dense, "dillhole."

Dory sat stiffly, waiting for the redheads anger to switch to her, but it didn't, instead she turned around and stormed back to the party without even glancing at her friend. Dory knew she didn't do anything wrong, but she still felt bad for her friend. Donna and Eric had been in a almost-couple tension since the Disco, but they hadn't made any move on each other or said anything to their friends about the possibility of getting together. Eric and Dory talked a lot since the Disco, usually about their families or comics since they shared the common ground of having a sometimes absent but always bitchy older sister and a love for the escape fantasy brings. Even though they spent time together Dory saw Eric's action as a wasted-act only, if talking meant romance then she would be left with a whole lot of lovers.

Even with Donna and Eric dancing around each other, Dory wanted nothing to do with Eric outside of friendship unless her two friends decided they had no interest in one another and never would. Being romantically involed with any of her new friends didn't seem like a good choice to her. At the end of the school semester Dory felt differently, she thought she and Hyde we're slowly growing mutual feelings for each other, but after watching him fawn over Donna and barely spending time with just her over summer she wasn't betting on him making a move. Dory wasn't competitive and she wasn't going to chase after anyone, so if both of the guys she spent so much time with wanted Donna she wasn't going to bother. She knew better than to set herself up to be a fall-back option for whoever Donna turned down, her next boyfriend wasn't going to be someone who saw her as a second-place prize.

Eric, who had been quietly munching on the pretzels next to her, broke Dory out of her thoughts, "Aww man, there's no more left."

"You should get dressed." Dory laughed as he looked down in confusion, as if remembering for the first time that he took off his clothing for the keg stand.

Deciding not to let her night be ruined and seeing that Eric was starting to function enough not to kill himself, Dory went back to the party to look for something to salvage the night with. Finding Hyde by the sound of his cackling, she joined him and Fez who were trying to say tongue twisters. Fez's already tricky accent was turned into incoherent noises as he attempted to say "Hyde hopped happily onto the Harley." One of the few things that weren't impossible to understand was when Fez would say the word boobies every time a girl walked by, gaining looks of disgust and anger from half the people at the party.

To stop him from looking up at everyone who walked by Dory decided to give Fez his own pair to look at. Finding a marker she took Fez's arm and drew a curvaceous naked woman, which effectively got him to stop saying boobies and ogling near by women. The drawback was that after a few minutes of silence he excused himself to the bathroom, the reason why clearly pushing against his already tight pants. After realizing he wasn't coming back anytime soon Hyde suggested they look around, figuring there must be something worth steeling in such a rich house. Hyde expected a roll of the eyes or punch to the arm, even the lower class girls he's hung around with before would give him dirty looks for his criminal habits, but that didn't happen.

Shrugging Dory agreed, "Usually opposed to theft from people, should only be corporations, but I know this family and they're assholes." Steven couldn't help but to grin ear to ear, excited to have a partner in crime.

 **The next chapter will pick up at the same spot that this one ends :)**


	9. Chapter 9

The party goers weren't meant to go upstairs, it was an unspoken but understood rule at each party and to make it even more clear there was a sign hung on the bottom of the staircase. A group of teens could clean up part of a house in time for their parents to come home, but not a whole house and not a perfectly laid out bedroom. In spite of this a few people would always slip upstairs, especially as the night went on and the host would get more drunk and care less. Hyde and Dory didn't even have to try to be sneaky as the went to the second floor.

Choosing the double doors to open first was supposed to lead to the best treasure, double doors meant a larger room and more likely to have expensive jewelry, but instead they were stopped in their tracks as they came face to face with a naked couple on the queen sized bed. Dory quickly turned to leave, having to grab Steven by the shirt to drag him away as he laughed at the expression on the couples faces. Moving down the hall the next door led to a bathroom, they tried their luck again on the third door, finding a bedroom that was free of people. It clearly belonged to the party thrower, the walls were covered in posters of football players, rock N roll bands and half naked women. While the floor was spotless and the laundry carefully organized, the dresser was cluttered with trophies and photos that praised Steven Carfagno's many years of athletics, going all the way back to a 2nd grade basketball game.

"Man, I hate him." Dory shook her head, remembering how she met him in 5th grade. It had been during the mile run in gym class, they had of course passed each other before that but the first time they spoke was engraved in her mind. Steven Carfagno was a star athlete even at age 10, and was expected to get the best time on the run for the class. His bubble was popped as Dorothy ran strong the whole mile, the only thing that stopped her from getting the best time was Steven. As they neared the end of the run the path dipped behind the parking lot, which left a blind spot from the coaches. In that blind spot she had started moving past him only to be yanked back by her shirt and thrown to the ground with a smug boy standing above her, "Girl's don't beat boys, dumby". She was fuming as he ran on, even after jumping to her feet and taking off after him as fast as she could she wasn't fast enough to beat him with the head start he got. She had come in second, still far ahead of the rest of the class, but it was all because some kid was a sexist asshole, even at that age.

"Know what would really get back at him?" Hyde asked, smirking at her as she raised an eyebrow in question.

He clarified, "Those people in the other room had the right idea. Screwing as a way to say 'screw you'."

She snorted and lifted up her middle finger at him, "In your dreams."

They continued to poke around, hoping to find something worth stealing and coming up empty. While Hyde tore through his closet, hoping to at least find a stash, Dory flipped through his albums with a lighter held to each one to warp them enough to ruin at least a few songs.

Normally Steven would move on but he really wanted to piss off this jock, "We gotta find something to steal, this kid used to spit on my lunches." Well, when he had lunches at least, Edna wasn't one to send him off to school with a brown paper bag too often.

Dory's response threw him off, "Have you washed your socks recently?"

Staring at her with a look of unease and confusion he hesitantly confirmed, he couldn't even remember the last time he had laundry done outside of slipping a shirt or two in with Eric's clothing. Dorothy smiled and offered an exchange, his dirty ones for a pair of the jocks clean ones. Steven didn't protest, he could use new socks without holes in them.

He wasn't kidding about them being dirty, as they made the switch Dory had to hold the socks at arms length as she climbed up onto the bed. Hyde took the opportunity to admire the way her dress hitched up her thighs as she reached above her head, he was so distracted that he barely registered that she was putting one of his socks into the air vent. He switched from admiring her backside to admiring her way of thinking as he watched her stick the second sock into his pillow, with any luck it would take weeks for Mr. Star-Player to figure out where the sweaty smell was coming from.

Hyde didn't have to try to find the words to express his praise for her devious thinking because as she finished up one act she was already ready to move on, "Let's go see if his parents have a fancy wine cellar." Hyde never thought mutual hatred could be so sexy.

The nice thing about having a partner in crime that's the opposite sex is when you're caught snooping around together, people just assume you're looking for a place to make out rather than to steal something. It looked suspicious for Hyde to be opening doors and moving on after finding closets and bathrooms, but every raised eyebrow of bystanders would quickly switch to a grin and nod of understanding as Hyde would motion to Dory, suggesting they were looking for a place to go. No one bothered to stop them as they slipped into the basement and locked the door behind them, eager to see if there was something worth while. The poorly lit, fully cement basement wasn't seeming hopeful at first, but tucked away in the corner was a section of the basement that cut out into its own small room. Pulling the string on the hang-down light illuminated a gold mine.

The pair of thieves didn't even know where to start, before them were two almost full wine racks that looked like they could hold 100 bottles. Taking a closer look there were wines that were 30 years old, but as interesting as it would be to taste a drink that could probably pay for someone's college tuition, it wasn't what the teens were excited for. Stacked in the bottom of the wine rack were hard liquors, vodkas, whiskeys and rums. Nodding happily Hyde reached for a half full bottle of Jack Daniels, unimpressed as Dory went for a sweetly flavored vodka like he would expect a girl to choose.

To avoid unwanted attention the teens slipped out of the house through the cellar doors rather than going back up to the party, choosing to head to the back of the large yard where a moderate sized fence marked the end of the property. Sitting with their backs on the fence, Dory and Hyde watched the party from afar. Most house party's would start to dwindle out after the first few hours, but that was when parents were home and the dancing and fun was kept to the basement. Tonight, the party raged on even though it was nearing 1am.

It was interesting to Dory, how soothing it was to sit somewhere just out of reach of the noise. After being inside the house that was bustling with sound, sitting outside felt ten times quieter. At party's it was easy to stop noticing that you would have to nearly shout to talk to each other, or how hard your ears were strained to listen. But once outside of the hustle and bustle, talking in a normal voice felt loud with how still everything else was in comparison to being inside. The pair sat in silence, wincing as they took the first few sips of their choice of hard alcohol, the sting was difficult to get past at first especially since it was rare that they got anything other than beer.

Eventually Dory broke the silence by laughing, her drunken thoughts had led her to people in history. Hyde waited, knowing she would either explain what was funny or go back to sipping on her vodka and enjoying the comfortable silence with him.

"Clyde" She continued, looking over at Steven, "Hyde and Clyde. Bonnie and Clyde. Dory and Hyde." She smiled widely, amused at how his name was so similar to a classic thief, especially after spending part of the night as each others partner in crime.

"Yeah, that's a hoot." Hyde wasn't as amused as she was about the similarity, but with the whiskey leaving a warm feeling in his stomach he couldn't help but to feel happy as Dorothy smiled at him. With the moon and the nearby house lights he could see the details of her face well even if they were outside at night.

He stared at her for a minute while she closed her eyes and let her head fall against the fence, still smiling at her own thoughts, oblivious to his lingering gaze. Warmth was instantly replaced with agitation as the lighting across her face reflected the flashing red and blue lights of the two cop cars that had just pulled up to the house. The pair should have been able to walk out of there, but one of the cops decided to walk around back to catch any kids who would try to run out the back door when realizing the party was being broken up and checked for underage drinkers.

Right as the flashlight shone in their direction Hyde shot up, pulling Dory with him. Steven, recognizing that Dorothy was too short to reach and too drunk to jump well, bent down wrapped his arms around her knees and lifted, helping her to reach the top of the fence. He quickly followed, landing on his feet on the other side, unlike Dory who had skinned her knee. Wasting no time he told her to book it, cutting through lawns and side streets the pair moved with amazing steadiness for how much they had consumed in such a short time. Even though there was no sign of the officer following them, Hyde had insisted on getting away from the party quickly. He had enough run ins with the police over the years to know not to risk slowing down before putting plenty of distance between himself and the cops.

Without even realizing it the pair had run towards Dorothy's house, proving that drunk or sober the two teens had navigators blood in them. Slipping in through the basement door, Dorothy successfully avoided waking up her parents. The buzzed pair of friends slid down the back of the door, trying to contain their laughter as they struggled to catch their breath from running. Escaping the police did a good job of sobering a teenager up, even though their bodies were still feeling the effects, the fear of getting in trouble sharpened the mind.

The glow of a small nightlight was enough to see the main path in the basement, giving Toto just enough light to be able to glance up, see that it was his owner who interrupted his sleep, and go back to resting instead of barking in alarm. Dory closed her eyes, head back on the door, the jump of nausea from running quickly faded to a feeling of sleepiness, her brain tricking itself into feeling the motion of lying in a hammock or floating in the ocean. A waviness that was relaxing as long as it didn't make you sick first. "I could fall asleep right here."

Dory didn't get a response, nor did she need one, she was nearly asleep until she jolted up at the feeling of something being draped over her. Opening her eyes to find one of the many quilts her mom had made thrown over her she relaxed again. She smiled and pulled it up to her face, snuggling into it, convinced the comfortable heat that filled her was solely from the blanket and had nothing to do with Steven's small act of care. She thanked him, only to be met with a shrug.

Hyde didn't look at her, he kept his stare on the room, examining all the things the basement held. Dory watched him for a moment, he often had his sunglasses on and to see him without them, even in dim lighting, was interesting to Dory's buzzed mind. The weight of her eyes took over though and soon they were closed again, even when he spoke she didn't re-open them.

"Got a lot of stuff down here."

Her voice was much softer than usual as she briefly explained the mix of items, "My mom likes sewing, my dad likes music. I like both" When he hummed in response she continued, "I like music more, less likely to stab a finger, and when I mess up a chord there's no pressure, mess up a stitch and you have to undo it all."

"You play?" Hyde looked over,not that Dory noticed with her eyes closed. He listened to her response, but his buzzed mind made it easy to get distracted, which led to him looking at her longer than what was normal once again.

"Mhm," She was going to leave it at a simple yes, but noticing she was falling asleep she continued to talk as an attempt to stay awake, "guitar, piano, harmonica, and I'm learning the drums but they're hard and I can't seem to get it. Bad at violin too. Multitasking is hard."

The corner of Steven's lip twitched up, it was both cute and funny to listen to her ability to form complex sentences disappear with every minute that she got more tired. His lip dropped into a frown as she spoke again.

"If you want to learn an instrument I can show you sometime."

It should have made him smile, her offer was exciting. He loved rockNroll and always loved the idea of being able to play. The thought of learning and being able to recreate his favorite songs on the beautiful collection of guitars in her basement was a dream, but painful memories came with it. He remembered how he had once had an acoustic guitar when he was young, one of if not the only present his mom ever got him. Thinking back on it he could recall perfectly how one day he woke up and it was gone along with one of the many "uncles" his mom brought to the house over the years.

Focusing back on the present, he realized Dory had opened her eyes to look at him because of how long it was taking for him to respond, the sight of her curious and sleepy gaze brought the upward twitch back to the corner of his mouth, keeping his composure zen he answered her, "that's cool."

If she wasn't so tired Dory would have rolled her eyes instead of closing them. A few moments passed before she let out another unexpected laugh.

"Hyde" She spoke so seriously that he couldn't help but to freeze.

"You're socks were really stinky" she said before laughing again, the giggles slowly dwindling down until they were replaced with heavy breathing, signaling that she had fallen asleep.

 **Author note:** I was giddy to see that I had new reviews for this :D three was enough to make me go "People are waiting! The show must go on!" Thanks again! The next chapter might take some time to get written though, I want to work on my Outsiders fiction and usually only have enough free time in life to focus on one at a time, but i'll do my best to brainstorm and start the next ch soon!

A long answer to the question of what I picture Dory to look like, the best similarity I can find is the Instagram model Mia Alves (whose picture is used in the image I made for this story). I see Dory as 5'6, pale with some freckles, dark brown basically black hair like Jackies that's wavy and armpit length, gray-green eyes, strong cheeks that make her face a little round looking, thick eyebrows (which are popular now, but weren't so much in the 70's which I like for Dory since I don't see her as the type who would take the time each week to pluck them thin just to stay with the in-style fashions)

The model, Alves, doesn't have the figure that I picture Dory with though, I picture her with less chest than Mia Alves because I don't want that to be a focus of the boys attention and don't want her to have that "Oh she's got a big butt, and big boobs, and a small waist, shes the most sexy person ever blah blah" that sometimes comes up in fanfiction's. You'll notice when the guys do focus on her body its mainly her butt and legs, she walks Toto a lot and walks around town with friends so they'd be pretty well toned. Obviously, I'm sure people picture her differently and it doesn't make a difference to me if you picture her with a different body/skin/hair/whatever, but if you do look her up as a comparison to see what I imagine then google Mia Alves, but I see Dory as someone who would wear mascara or nothing as daily makeup and not often glam-up, so if you google her then I would type in "no makeup" with it. I would add links to pictures to make it easy but I don't think this site allows that


	10. Chapter 10

**c** h 10

Eric felt like the unluckiest son of a bitch. Although the cops didn't arrest most of the party goers, Eric still managed to get caught by Red. He made it back to Kelso's house, where he had told his parents he was sleeping for the night. Thinking he was safe, Eric practically skipped home the next morning, but of course he had jumped the gun on that assumption. Once he walked in the sliding kitchen door, just in time for breakfast, Red stared at him hard. Even after using mouthwash Eric's breath still gave him away, earning him a swift kick in the ass and an added punishment of two weeks of being grounded.

The silver lining was having an excuse to avoid his two best female friends after having kissed one without permission in front of the other. For two weeks he debated between apologizing, pretending he was too drunk to remember what happened, or stubbornly insisting he hadn't done anything wrong. After all, he and Donna weren't dating. Fitting perfectly with his past history of being a moron, he opted for pretending the situation didn't exist. This might have worked if he wasn't incredibly awkward.

Eric's friends joined him in his basement for the first time since the party, looking between each other as they could feel the tension radiating off of him, but only the two females understanding why. Instead of apologizing like he knew he should, he sat on the floor, fidgeting with the TV dial, not registering the shows he was flipping past. As long as he didn't have to look back at Donna's indifferent stare, which somehow felt worse than when she wore an icy glare. Donna had moved from the couch to the second lawn chair right as Eric tried to speak to her, making it clear that she hadn't forgotten or forgiven him.

Luckily for Eric, Hyde and Fez were still unaware of his move on Dory. Other than a few raised eyebrows at the odd interaction they said nothing, which made it leagues easier on Eric. What didn't make it any better, however, was that Dory was present, sitting on the couch, legs curled up beside her. Although Dory wasn't doing anything to show if she was upset or not, in Eric's mind having both of them in the same room was a ticking time bomb. He had spent his two weeks alone fearing that Donna would lash out at both him and Dorothy, and after the appealing thought of clothes ripping in a girl fight left his mind, he would be back to worrying. Unaware to him, Donna and Dorothy had already talked about what happened and didn't have any hard feelings towards each other.

As he assumed the worst, Eric started to visibly sweat, nearly breaking the TV dial in his spurt of anxiety. He was so deep in thought that he didn't hear Hyde calling his name until he was kicked in the back, causing his pent up frustration to be directed at his curly haired friend.

"WHAT!?"

He was unfazed by the tantrum, "knock it off Foreskin, you'll break the TV!"

"I'll break the TV if I damn well want to!" He wagged his finger in Hyde's direction, un-amused at the use of his least favorite nickname.

Steven kept a cool tone, being used to his best friends spastic nature, "TV goes, we all go."

Fez chimed in, innocently wanting to keep the peace, "Don't worry Eric, I will still like you. Even without TV, here is better than with my host family. Their figurines stare into my soul." Fez stared into the distance, no longer aware of his surroundings as he thought of each miniature, religious statue staring into his soul.

The sound of footsteps gained the attention of the teens, knowing it could only be Eric's parents since Kelso and Jackie were occupied for the day. Everyone looked toward Red, hoping that he wasn't there to yell at them.

"Donna," she froze, eyes going wide, worried and confused as to why Red would be addressing her instead of Eric, "Bob's looking for you."

"Oh thank god" Donna sighed out before jumping to her feet and out the door. He must be in a good mood to use her fathers name rather than 'dumb ass'.

Red continued his mission, "You," pointing to his son, "Dinner. The rest of you, get out."

The friends got to their feet, looking between each other wondering what to do now, before they could leave Red called again, pointing to Dory, "Not you, come upstairs."

Dorothy looked bewildered, glancing between her friends, looking for help. She had never been in Reds path when upset and couldn't fathom why she would be now. Instead of reassuring smiles she was met with grinning faces, her companions excited to see someone new get chewed out. She followed Eric up the steps while Steven and Fez ran out back and to the kitchen door, hoping to overhear an ass kicking.

Dorothy stood awkwardly next to the refrigerator, watching as Red and Eric took their seats at the dinner table while Mrs. Forman pulled a meatloaf out of the oven. Before she could question why she was there, Kitty tuned around, large oven mits still covering her hands as she reached for Dorothy.

"Hi sweetie! You look nervous!" she laughed heartily before continuing, "Red and I thought it would be nice if we met your parents."

Red grunted from the kitchen table, signaling that he heard the conversation but wasn't as excited as his wife suggested.

"Sure, Mrs. Forman." Dory kept her lips tight, not wanting to argue with the woman she had come to see as the group mother. She never saw the good in having parents meet each other, to her it was just a way to get caught lying more easily if the adults started talking.

Knowing she wasn't invited to stay, Dory went out the glass door, rolling her eyes as Eric frantically tried to avoid her stare as she said goodbye.

Coming face to face with Hyde and Fez she raised an eyebrow, wondering why they had decided to crawl over each other to see into the kitchen.

"Man, was hoping to see an ass whooping" The curly haired boy complained.

Dory gave him a dead stare,"We can start with you."

Hyde grinned, not feeling overly threatened. He had seen Donna nearly rip heads off in wrestling matches, and had seen Jackie pinch and kick swiftly enough to leave bruises. But as harsh as her words could be when provoked, Dory had never thrown more than a soft warning punch or slap to the arm.

"All the anticipation has made me hungry." Fez frowned, putting a hand over his stomach, sighing like a child who waited for solutions to come along rather than finding them.

"We could go to the Hub."

Fez stared at Dorothy with a light of hope in his eyes, "my feet hurt, also." He stated, thinking he was being smooth with his attempt to get her to drive them instead of walking.

On a day as hot as this she had no interest in being outside for that long anyway. "I'll have to start charging a chauffeur fee."

"I hope massages is an acceptable payment. Oh, and handgun!" Fez happily replied, causing Dory to cringe slightly. The thought of a massage was pleasant, but knowing it came from someone who would probably be aroused by simply touching her hand for too long turned her off to the suggestion.

Arriving at the car Fez stood tall, holding the door open for Hyde, waiting for him to climb into the back seat.

Instead he stared with one raised eyebrow, looking at Fez like he had grown a second head for trying to change their power dynamic, "What are you doing?"

"I called handgun, I get to sit in the front." Fez waved his hand, gesturing to the seat like a game show model.

"Shotgun."

Fez looked perplexed, not understanding why Steven was reiterating his point rather than getting in the car.

Dory explained, seeing that Hyde wasn't going to help him out without getting irritated, "The saying is shotgun, not handgun. You didn't call the right name."

"Shotgun!" Fez quickly called, grinning at Hyde with a sense of victory.

"But Fez, he said shotgun a second ago."

The smile fell from his face as Hyde gestured for him to get into the back seat. Fez frowned, hanging his head as he complied to the car etiquette rules.

The Hub was not a particularly nice place. The floors were often covered in dirt scuffs, the condiment bottles always seemed to need refilling, and looking under the table at the gum-graveyard was a thing of nightmares for any sanitary person. But for Dory there wasn't much of a choice. She hadn't told her parents about quitting her job, maintaining the illusion for over a month in order to avoid needing to check in with them often. So to keep up the charade Dory settled for food at the Hub most nights instead of a delicious home cooked meal.

Fez jumped at the chance, unlike most people he seemed to thrive off of eating fried foods and candy day after day. After having fries as a daily meal for a few weeks, Dory was happy to pass her fries off to the two boys as she dove into her cheeseburger.

"Dory, did you know, I love you" Fez declared, eyes shinning with enjoyment at the free food.

She snorted, mouth too full of burger to give any other response as Fez continued his complement, "in my country a good woman comes with livestock, instead of animals to eat, you have money to buy food! Wow." He sat, shaking his head in amazement at the progressive country he was now living in.

"Well, I won't if I keep eating out" Dory complained before taking a sip of her drink, frowning lightly at her meal.

"When you do, I will hunt you dinner," Fez sat straighter, as if taking on a great duty, "There is a plentiful number of rabbits in this neighborhood." He smiled proudly, not realizing that the looks of bewilderment on his friends faces were a negative thing.

"How do you afford this all the time, man?" Hyde asked, raising an eyebrow at the realization that Dory always seemed to have a few dollars. He crossed his arms, looking at Dory expectantly. He might like her well enough, but to him anyone who had money was someone to be suspicious of.

She looked at him with an equally high raised eyebrow, unfazed by his switch in attitude. She knew well enough by now that Steven would look for reasons not to like people, "I had a job, remember?"

"Enough to get a car off of a Fatso Burger salary?"

"No, it was a gift from my uncle to me and my sister. He was moving to Cali after a divorce and didn't want to take two cars."

Fez perked up, "Sister? There is another goddess?"

Dory sighed through her nose, annoyed at the idea that her friends would probably end up drooling over and wanting to be around her sister. She had spent her childhood and early teens listening to friends gush about how cool she was and short lived boyfriends commenting on how good she looked. The idea of doing it again left a sour feeling in her gut. "Yeah Fez," she answered dully before looking back to her paranoid friend, "she went to college where they don't have parking, so it's mine outside of when she visits."

Hyde accepted her explanation, if he could hang out with well behaved, middle class Forman he could hangout with law-breaking, middle class Dorothy. Thinking about it, for a kid from the wrong side of life, he sure had a diverse mismatch of friends.

-.-

-.

Forman House

Eric stood in his driveway, eyes darting around like a rodent cornered by a cat, looking for an escape route.

When he came outside to throw the basketball around, he didn't expect Donna to appear out of the shadows of the yard. He had assumed that they would continue to ignore each other until the issue passed, but his strong willed friend had other intentions. As squirrely as it made him to face the upset redhead, her habit of being straight forwards was a personality trait that he admired.

He stuttered out a hello, which was met with a disbelieving stare, "that's it? Thats all I get?"

"Umm, how're you doing?" his tone was unsure, he knew where the conversation was leading but he didn't know how to brace himself for it outside of acting casual.

Donna's hair flowed around her as she nodded her head and pursed her lips, coming to terms with the fact that her best friend, and potential future boyfriend, was a coward. "Eric, what are we doing? I kiss you, I show you I like you, and you make a move on Dory? What the hell? I thought..." she trailed off, voice getting softer at the end, feeling embarrassed by her assumption, "I thought you liked me too."

Eric stopped fidgeting and looked hard at his neighbor, letting her words sink in before starting,"That kiss was a drunk mistake, I'm pretty sure I puked right after." He threw in, trying to make light of it before switching back to a more serious tone, "Donna, I wasn't thinking, I would never have done that if I was sober."

Donna had to much anger, too many unsure feelings to let that be the end of it, "Well, why not? Dory's great."

Eric shrugged, "Yeah, but I wouldn't trade what we have for her, or anyone."

He kept eye contact, something difficult for Eric, but he didn't want to shy away from Donna's scrutinizing stare. He wanted his eyes to be able to show how he felt.

"What do we have?"

Eric shook his head, "I don't know. Whatever you want it to be. I just know I hate not hanging out with you, and when you're mad at me it's..." he paused, trying to find a way to describe how her icy indifference felt, "it's worse than an ass kicking from Red."

"Well, I don't know either! I know it sucked to see you kiss Dory, but it feels crappy to not spend time with you."

The skinny teen stared at the redhead, waiting for her to continue as she looked into the distance, trying to sort through her own thoughts.

Instead of making a set decision on what they were, Donna followed a page from Eric's book and used a small joke to signify that the conversation was over, and that for now they were back on okay terms, "You shouldn't drink, you can't afford to lose any more brain cells."

The pair smiled at each other, happy to have a sense of normalcy return to their friendship.

Next Chapter Wil **l be more Hyde/Dory bonding, already have a little bit written/planned :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ch 11**

 **Thanks for following and liking and the reviews! Let me know if there is anything you want to see more or less of :) I try to do a bit of friendship building and a bit of romance building**

In a town where most things were in walking distance, and where gas prices were getting too high to afford to make small trips, it wasn't common to drive your friends home. Even with a car, Dory made a point to walk places most of the time, saving the car for the hottest or coldest days. Because of this, if she didn't hangout at a friends house, she didn't know how or where they lived. No point in walking to someones house just to turn around and leave when you could meet them somewhere in the middle.

But as Fez stared at her with wide-eyed panic as he realized how late it had gotten, she agreed to chauffeur again in hopes of helping him get home closer to curfew.

Dory wasn't surprised that Fez was being housed in a nice, middle class home. She wouldn't expect a lower income family to take in another mouth to feed. She also wasn't surprised as Steven directed her toward the poor side of town, it didn't take a genius to notice the wear in his clothing, or the amount of time spent away from home. And if it wasn't obvious enough, his regular comments about his mothers promiscuity painted a pretty clear picture.

What she didn't expect was to stop outside of a house with enough screaming coming from it to wake a coma patient.

The rebellious teens sat in silence, one teen staring at his front door and the other teen staring at him. Recognizing the silence as pity, Steven smirked, ready to brush off any proof of emotional distress, "Home sweet home."

Dory placed her hand on his arm, the warm skin to skin contact feeling uncomfortable in the already too hot summer night. She wasn't sure what to say, it was clear Hyde was about to bolt out the door if she made the wrong comment.

"I hate smoking alone, wanna go for a drive?"

The genuine smile that replaced the defensive smirk showed that she asked the right question.

The 71 Plymouth Cuda slowly weaved through the back roads of town, the headlights the only light on the dark tree-covered path. The radio filled the silence between the teens, a strange mixture of genres playing at this time of night. Shifting between country, Motown, do-wop and banjo tunes. A combination made only for those who decided that home, safe in bed, wasn't the place to be.

The smell of marijuana hung in the car even with the windows down. The scent was locked in by the moisture in the air; almost as thick as driving through a cloud. Humidity and the whipping breeze caused Dorothy's hair to become almost as frizzy as her co-pilot's, causing him to study her as she kept her eyes on the road. Every few minutes she would take a drag of her joint, the burn of paper as she pulled air in would light up her face with a warm glow before falling into shadow once again.

Dory didn't ask, or look at him with sorrow, for the length of their drive. A few jokes were shared here and there about the difficulty in rolling a successful smoke stick while the wind blew through the windows, but she hadn't needed to fill the silence and Steven was grateful. He needed the quiet, even if just for a little bit.

"This is nice."

Dorothy glanced over, Stevens voice drawing her attention as it cut over the soft hum of the smooth jazz tune. She was hoping he would speak before the end of the drive, taking it as a sign that he was beginning to relax again. A flutter ran through her chest, the success she felt in him admitting to having a nice time under such shit circumstances gave her more of a rush than she's had on dates with charming people.

She smiled lightly, "Well, you bring the weed and i'll keep gas in the tank."

"I don't wanna stop driving." The exhaustion in his tone made her glance over. They held eye contact for longer than what was safe while driving a car. Something in his stare made her assume that the weariness in his voice was a tiredness that came from life rather than the nights passing hours.

"Whats the furthest you've ever gone out of Point Place?" Dory asked

"Kenosha, Ted Nugent concert." He snorted as he recalled the time, "Forman just got the car and it still broke down, we had to give away two tickets to get a new battery."

Dory laughed, if something like that was going to happen, it would of course happen to Eric Forman, "Sounds shitty."

He was silent for a minute, smiling to himself, "it was pretty fun, got to leave Stella and her lap dog in the car."

Dory snorted, "That's always a plus, furthest i've gone is Memphis. Home of the king. My sister and I ran out of paper and used the map for arts and crafts, so most of the vacation was my dad yelling as we got lost." Dory smiled to herself at the memory.

"Never really had that, well, the vacation part at least. Vacation is when my mom leaves food in the fridge before taking off for a few days." Hyde's casual jokes and sarcasm about his life was a look into how rough he had it, and it made Dory deflate. She felt guilty, wanting to share the goodness of the world with him but knowing that even if she could it would never replace a parents affections, or lack of.

"Where would you want to go?"

He paused, as if he never really thought about it,"Grand Canyon maybe."

"Little out of my gas tank range tonight, how about lake Michigan?"

Hyde considered her suggestion for a minute, almost anywhere would be better than home. But he recognized how tired his companion was. Dory's eye lids were getting heavy, eyes watering every few minutes when she would let out a deep yawn.

He smirked, "I think you would kill us if you tried to drive that far tonight."

Robust laughter erupted from Dorothy, she knew he was right but didn't expect him to call her out on it. When she was this tired simple things made her smile. "True."

The car turned down a dirt road, the path so tight that the branches of trees gently scraped against the side of the review mirrors. Not traveling too deep, Dory parked and cut the engine. Instead of answering the question Hyde was asking with his expression, she just smiled and got out of the car and walked around to the trunk before returning to the front.

Getting out of the passenger seat Hyde leaned against the vehicle, watching as his companion crawled onto the burning hood of the car, placing a folded blanket down at the windshield before laying her head onto it.

She finally answered his non-verbal question, "I'm too tired to drive, ya know?"

"Not gonna take me home, huh?"

"Nope." She turned her head to the sky, appreciating the stars for a moment, "You can drive us if you really want to go." She shut her eyes, letting herself relax as she listened and waited for Steven to either protest or join her.

He wouldn't say it, but he had no problem with never going home. And whether he realized it or not, he didn't need to say it. Dory knew that sometimes caring didn't mean pushing for answers or offering a shoulder, sometimes simply giving an option for brief escape was enough to make a difference.

The car sunk a little lower, the weight of a second body on the hood pushing it down further. Even though the hood scoop separated the two friends, the folded blanket extended across the windshield, giving Hyde a section to rest his head on as well.

By the time Steven had thought of something fitting to say, it no longer mattered. Dory's breathing had become deeper, fingers twitching once in awhile as she dreamed. Only patches of the sky were visible from under the canopy of thick leaves, but the glow of the stars was enough to occupy Steven while he slowly let sleep take him too.

 _Dory's bedroom, Point Place, August 17th_

Jackie and Dory sat across from each other in the middle of the floor, each resting comfortably in separate bean bag chairs. The smell of nail polish remover hung in the air as the girls sat, scrubbing away the old layers in order to paint a fresh coat on their toes and fingers.

Staying out all night and lying about still having a job left Dory with a punishment of being stuck inside for two weeks. Now that it was over, Jackie decided that before she could re-join the gang, they needed to have a day of gossiping and prep for the upcoming school year.

"She told me not to tell you" Jackie continued, hoping to get a rise out of her friend over nothing. She had finished telling her a very detailed story of how Eric took Donna to see the Omen, and instead of watching, they ended up on the ground sucking face.

Grey green eyes met dark brown ones with confusion, "Why? I'm glad they finally decided what they're doing."

"That's just it though, they haven't! They've been making out, but then they act like they're not, but they totally are."

Dory looked back to her finger nails, focusing on applying the bright blue polish, shaking her head in disappointment at her friends inability to make a decision. "So, I'm not supposed to know?"

"Nope, it's a secret. Something about not wanting it to be weird with you until they figure out if they're dating."

Dory smiled at her friends inability to keep a secret, why anyone would trust the small girl with something important was beyond her.

"What a pair of idiots" She responded, as much as she understood that they didn't want any outside influence on their decision, the thought that Dory would do anything to harm their chances was an insult. If anything, it confused her, if Donna was still worried about Dory causing an issue, why wouldn't she want to show off their relationship development?

Jackie, being the queen of sharing information, answered the unasked question, "I know! Girls are supposed to make it clear to other girls that they own a man, but she wants it to be a secret because she doesn't want it to be weird with the group if she doesn't date him. Wants to talk to you in person or something."

Dory fell back into the chair, exhausted by having the same conversation with the stubborn redhead. As much as Donna claimed to understand, she still didn't seem to fully believe that Dory wasn't going to date Eric. Even if the childhood friends didn't date, and didn't make out, knowing they liked each other was enough to turn the brunette off.

But knowing Jackie and her passion for stirring up fights, it probably wasn't as dramatic as she was trying to make it appear. Donna most likely was just nervous about the whole idea of dating her friend, rather than worried about Dory like the tiny cheerleader liked to suggest.

Jackie kept talking, "And Eric, he's lucky to have any girl take an interest in him, he should be telling everyone. Who knows when he'll have another chance at saying he touched a woman who isn't his Mommy."

 **"BURN!"**

Dory and Jackie screeched in alarm, jumping to their feet as they heard a voice from inside the closet. Picking up the nearest large object, which happened to be her nightstand lamp, Dory prepared to chuck it at any assailant that dared to show themselves.

"Come out now!"

The girls were met with silence for a moment, the barely audible sound of shuffling came from behind the cracked open door before the voices replied, "Its a ghhhhoooosstt, oooooooo!"

Recognizing the voices as Michael and Fez, Dory sighed and set the lamp down. Even though it was her friends inside the closet she was still tempted to pick it back up and proceed with the attack.

Using her most shrill, demanding tone of voice Jackie called her boyfriends name. Instead of cooperation, Kelso's agitated voice yelled in response, "DAMN JACKIE, GHOST! GHHOOSST"

Clearly exasperated at his response she threw her head back and let out a groan, crossing her arms she plopped back into her chair, letting Dory take over.

"Come out, creeps"

The near minute of silence that followed her demand made Dorothy reconsider following her original plan of whipping the door open and smashing a lamp into the closet-dwellers faces. Knowing the boys didn't fear her enough she decided she was done with waiting, "I'm getting my dad."

She didn't get more than a step closer to the bedroom door before the two boys tumbled out of the closet, landing on top of each other in their rush to show themselves. Fez crawled over Michael to get closer to Dorothy's feet, cutting the taller boy off from speaking before him.

"Please forgive me, I am just a poor foreigner who got pulled into his devious, devious ways." Fez pointed at Michael before turning back to the unamused pair of brunettes, turning his eyebrows in and pouting his lip in hopes of avoiding punishment. Michael gasped dramatically at being thrown under the bus before he twisted the foreign exchange students nipple in revenge, which only led to an even bigger pout.

Growing tired of the interruption to her gossip time, Jackie decided on a punishment, "You want to be with us so badly? Fine, come here."

The boys looked at each other, unsure if they should move forward. They looked like two puppies who expected punishment, but couldn't help but to be hopeful for a treat. They looked to Dory, as if wanting a sign that it would be okay. Instead she ignored them and sat back down in her bean bag chair, picking up the blue polish she had been using before.

Jackie pointed to the spot on the floor between her and Dorothy before asserting her will, "Now!"

The boys sat before her in the blink of an eye, "Michael, your hand" she commanded.

As usual, her lover-boy misinterpreted the situation "Jackie, I already told you, I'm not ready for marriage."

Grabbing his hand instead of bothering to ask again, Jackie set his large fingers down onto her knee as she shook up a bottle of red polish. Dory followed her lead, requesting Fez's hand, which as placed in her lap with no hesitation.

"I didn't expect to be rewarded, blue is a good choice!" he grinned, excited to take part in the beautification ritual. Dory almost felt bad for him, knowing that by this time tomorrow he would probably get beat up for parading around with painted nails. But she continued on, making sure the blue polish was applied evenly for her unsuspecting foreign friend.

"Do I paint your nails now?" He asked, still cheerful even though his creep-companion was complaining about Jackie's choice of punishment.

Dory raised and eyebrow and shared a look with Jackie, shrugging she fell back and let herself sink into the beanbag chair while resting her feet in Fez's lap, "whatever."

Fez's face lit up, as if the holy grail had been set in his lap. Even if he was enjoying it now, Dory could relax and enjoy the pampering, knowing that in the days to come he would get what was coming to him for trying to spy on her. Jackie and Dorothy shared a smirk before they closed their eyes and let themselves unwind, both amused at the thought of the boys upcoming embarrassment.


End file.
